Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems No sound from centre speaker

With the legacy mconfig software, you can connect a DSP33 speaker and also configure it / check if it's not a controller and a center speaker.

I received my new cables for my D1500 yesterday and decided to use the digital coax for the DSP33. Now everything works, sort of!

The centre speaker is much louder than the main speakers.
I was hoping to avoid using a PC with the DSP33 but that looks like my next step.

Every cable that I’ve had for around 15 years has failed within the last month, 2 of them were being used on a regular basis, so I had no reason to doubt them.

Now I have new cables all round and everything works, what a relief.

Thanks for all your help, I was just about ready to spit out my dummy 😫

Steve,

You'll want to do a level calibration and time alignment of the speakers now that you've added a working center to the system.

Anything with a higher channel width than 2.0/2.1 is considered a "Surround" configuration not just in Meridian terms but also more generally as far as calibration criteria for optimized playback.

Read the section of the manual in the 568 that discusses speaker calibration. It's critical you measure and set the exact distances for all 3 speakers in the 568 in ft and inches for time alignment which allows the sound of all 3 speakers to reach your ears simultaneously. For gain trim (level calibration) you will need a basic SPL meter, with a slow/C weighting to adjust the levels of each speaker so that they read the same exact SPL when playing the test pink noise in your listening position.

In the consumer realm, 75dB/C is generally the agreed upon reference level to calibrate all 3 (in your case) of your speakers to. So with the SPL meter, adjust the gain trim for all 3 channels until they read as 75db on the meter with pink noise playing. Once you've done that, you're all set and now have a calibrated playback system. You shouldn't find the center channel to be significantly louder at all or much more prominent unless the content you are playing is mixed that way or you are using a DSP preset that is center heavy depending on how it's configured and the content.

Good luck.

The only thing I would add to the excellent advice above is that you will absolutely need to use a meter to set the level of the sub correctly, due to the way the human auditory system works at low frequencies.

And I think it will save you a lot of hassle, and be much more flexible in the end, if you get yourself a USB-serial adapter and Legacy Config so you can configure your 568 with a PC…

See the section of the wiki on SPL meter types and USB serial cables, getting the recommended types will save you a lot of hassle in the end…

(And by the way, it’s all worth it - Trifield is awesome!)

I've had an M cable "fail" on me once or twice. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you might find that the inner signal core has become detached from the centre pin. If you unscrew the RCA cover at one end or the other (or both!), it can be resoldered to revive the cable.

After buying 2 more cables it seems that Trifield works fine with other sources. The problem I had was resolved by using a different DSP preset (music I think) with that source.

Thanks again for your advice, I will be tweaking it soon, but I’m just enjoying having things working again for now! It Sounds great already and will be awesome when calibrated.

I want to replace the centre with 5000HC/5200HC or even 5500HC if I can get one locally 🙂

The sub is also working.

It’s going to blow you away when properly set up and calibrated!

And yes, a 5200HC/5500HC will also be a big improvement.

I recently upgraded my 5kHC to a 5.2kHC and the difference is phenomenal even though both are nominally the same power. The clarity and response is much improved.

The DSP5500HC is a different beast altogether.

It's a horizontal 6k which when I had a pair I found overwhelmed my space. The 5.2 suits my 7k's and space perfectly.