Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian SpeakerLink Question

I'm sure this has come up before ... I've got on my 818v3 and 8000SE (finally after 15 years of scrimping!) a set of RJ45 leads cat 8 twisted pairs balanced cables (that aren't the Meridian ones design for audio high quality ones).
I love them but it will not control EBA, EBC, movie/music modes and loudness.

Is this a cable wiring issue or is at a Meridian firmware gremlin?
The speaker are set as EBA Y not SL.
I can control bass table balance volume mute source everything else.

Am I better of just using the Meridian SpeakerLink cables instead?

Cheers as always forever loyal to Meridian !!!

Hi Justin.

I think the issue you are experiencing is most likely not down to the cable. You need to set these parameters to be controlled via SL in the speaker for the 818 to be able to control these settings on the speaker. Some of the settings you are referring to I don't think are applicable to the 8000SE. EBC only works for down firing woofers (M6 and DSW) where you set room height. Music and Movie modes only apply to subwoofers if I remember correctly, so this could be a reason you cannot control these options. I could be wrong.

If that's the case cool I'm happy cheers !!!

Let me explain again why replacing generic Cat7 or Cat8 with Belden MediaTwist Cat6 sounds so much better in my system. This from Google AI:

To achieve massive gigabit bandwidth over network distances, Cat8 conductors are placed in incredibly tight physical proximity to their internal aluminium foil shields. The Problem: Wrapping a conductor tightly in metal foil spike-charges its mutual capacitance. High capacitance acts as a physical low-pass filter on digital audio. Even over a short 2-meter sprint, a high-capacitance Cat8 cable rounds off the incredibly sharp, instantaneous vertical edges of the AES3 digital square wave.

The Belden Cat6 1872A Advantage: 1872A relies on a spacious, unshielded profile with a massive inner web separator. Its mutual capacitance is kept incredibly low and stable (roughly 15 pF/ft), resulting in punchier transients and cleaner vocal presentation.

The Cat8 Design: Many commercially available, pre-terminated Cat8 patch cables use stranded copper conductors or thin 24/26 AWG wires to maintain consumer flexibility. Stranded wires force high-frequency digital signals to jump across individual microscopic strands, introducing boundary resistance and signal phase shifts. The Belden MediaTwist, on the other hand, utilizes heavy, solid 23 AWG Bare Copper conductors. High-frequency AES3 digital signals travel completely smoothly along the uninterrupted outer perimeter of a solid core (the skin effect), eliminating any internal strand-jumping phase errors.

Again, to block data crosstalk at 2 GHz, Cat8 cables feature an extremely aggressive, ultra-tight twist rate (more twists per inch).This extreme twisting mechanically stresses the copper and lengthens the actual physical path the signal has to travel relative to the straight line of the jacket. By contrast, Belden utilizes its patented Bonded-Pair geometry. Instead of over-twisting the wires into knots, they physically fuse the polyolefin insulation of the pair together during manufacturing. This guarantees a completely frozen, unyielding 100-Ohm characteristic impedance and a flat delay skew of less than 25ns without choking the wire layout.

Sounds good I'm running Xangsane XS-1103Ag 4N Pure Silver Cat 8 Network Cable Hifi Ethernet Cable 10 Gigabit Network 40Gbps2000MHz Crystal Plug.

STP is a basic requirement of the SpeakerLink design. It's the only stipulation other than Cat5 or higher.

Other than being a working STP Cat5 cable, the choice of cable has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the OPs issue.

If you want to believe the drivel produced by Google AI, that's up to you. Gave me a laugh though, so thanks for sharing it.

I am using these for SpeakerLink cables: Cat8 Ethernet Patch Cable S/FTP 22AWG Double Shielded | 40Gbps | 3 M - Black

The solid core 22AWG wires rubbed me the right way. But now I am lying awake about the story of OldDogCan that my digital square wave edges are squared off and this is destroying my soundstage.
I am always happy to test, even when I am skeptic, so I will give the Belden cables a try. In the past I have tested different SpeakerLink cables on my 7200SE and could not hear a difference.

Get some rest, then connect cheap Belden MediaTwist instead of LINKUP for a few days (which brand I happen to use within my LAN) and let us know what you hear.