Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Trifield alternatives

I have been running a G68 with Dynaudio Contour speakers in a 5.1 config. Front three recently replaced with the latest 20i & 25i C. for 18-20 years. I recently replaced my amp with a Primare 35.8.
I am 75% music and 25% Av stuff and have been very happy with both. Sources have been CD and streamer via coax into the G68. I mainly listen to music in either Direct or Trifield DSP mode.

It is time to redecorate our lounge and we will be having some electrical work done etc and and I thought is was time to add to ceiling speakers to allow a future change to the processor. BUT, Trifield music is so very important that I want to see what other alternatives there are out there.

There are plenty of fabulous AV processors that do a million channels but what do they do with music? I am sure many do a 'direct' mode but any alternatives that are close to Trifield or music DSP settings?

I could just stick with what I have and find a G65 or maybe a 861v6 or v8, but with all the work being done in the house I thought it would be a good time to look at alternatives.

Thanks

Honestly, I think if you love Trifield it's pretty much irreplaceable and still unique.

I also think, for music in a multichannel processor, Meridian still sounds best, especially any of the 861 series - would you rather have 7.1 sublime channels or a gazillion mediocre ones? I picked up an 861 and have been very happy with this, they really are very good. Even the 861v4 with a Linear Power Supply is a significant step-up from a G68. You can add an ID40 card for superb streaming as long as you pay for Roon.

If you want a real upgrade, get some DSPs

How readily available are the adapter cards for the 861s? I assume they aren’t made anymore so it’s second hand market?

I think it depends which adapter cards you’re after - some are more common than others, but yes, second-hand mostly, although some dealers might have some new old stock, depending on the generation of the 861. 861v8 was only discontinued very recently so there’s a chance of a new processor or ex-demo, and possibly new cards for these, I imagine.

You are doing well to consider alternatives while remodeling. Processors such as the Trinnov offer very good upmix features for two channel sources. The upmixer settings in the Trinnov can be tweeked to sound very similar to Trifield.

I have seen a few showing as in stock, both 861 and G65. When contacted they apologise, there website is out of date.
I shall continue the search, meanwhile my G68 is giving fabulous music.

Alternatives are properly Dolby Pro logic related. My Marantz has a centre spread option which works well to take the localisation away from the centre speaker to give a more even sound across the front. It’s not a Trifield replacement from memory; made too many changes to really remember but it was for some time my preference when I had an 861 / G65, although I did eventually gravitate to PLII Music after tweaking the centre and rear speaker settings.

Anthem have a music mode but I’ve never heard it.

This is really good advice. I don't think there is any true replacement for what Trifield can do for music.

50 years ago (my early teenage years), I owned a Sansui Quadraphonic Receiver - followed by a Sansui Quadraphonic Integrated Amplifier - both feeding 4 x Celestion Ditton 15 Loudspeakers.

While I was able to play CD-4, SQ, UHJ, and QS encoded Albums via my Garrard 401/SME3009, I especially enjoyed the upmixng of conventional 2 channel music via ‘QS Synthesizer’.

Fast forward to the present day: I’m interested in your experience on what exactly is engaged on a Trinnov to facilitate similar upmixing of 2 channel music?

You essentially select a upmixer, tweak the channel levels to what you feel is a similar experience to Trifield and save it as a preset. You can even go so far as to limit the number of speakers to 5.1 to be even more like Trifield.

Is Trinnov unique in providing this feature, or do Lyngdorf and Storm|Audio also provide this feature?

Trifield is not just a simple channel upmixer, it’s a very specific way of doing it which has certain unique features and benefits. To quote from an article around the time of the 565, when these things were discussed a fair bit-

“the signals for the left, right and centre speakers are calculated in an MST matrix, which is a phase-
amplitude shuffler that redistributes the sounds on a constant energy-with-frequency basis. Meridian claims that the process offers significant improvements over the Blumlein stereo system, which converts phase differences between the microphone signals into amplitude differences in the speaker signals. Trifield's major advantages are that "the frontal signals are redistributed to have different stereo widths at low and high frequencies, ‘correcting' for the fact that we perceive two-channel stereo width differently according to frequency; the frontal image is constant energy in terms of the input left-right original; the frontal width of the stereo image can be adjusted."

There is a fuller article here going into some detail in the history and differences, which is more about the original Gerzon approach - Meridian goes beyond this using DSP to achieve some aspects not possible in the analogue domain.