Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Trinnov Altitude CI

Given my compromised room: ceiling beams, and asymmetric rear wall, I've spent my spare time utilising Gemini, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude, to pit multiple passive overhead speakers against each other to resolve my Atmos issues.

Standard 'shower effect' speakers' audio performance (such as my original choice of KEF Ci200RR-THX) would suffer from comb filtering and shadow masking when mounted between my ceiling beams. Also, my room's asymmetric rear wall meant that the perfect rear-mounted 45-degree angle (or anything between 30 and 55 degrees) to the MLP cannot be achieved. The remaining criterion was for a speaker that would easily fit within my ceiling beams and ceiling void.

Every single AI that I utilised reached the same conclusion/recommendation. Both had Beryllium tweeters and angled drivers - both of which completely overcome my room issues.

At £3,400 per unit, the Perlisten S3ic was rejected: not only was it too expensive, but it was too heavy (9.4kg each), too wide, and too deep. Its Beryllium tweeter was a perfect match for the instant start/stop behaviour of my DSP5200SE's Beryllium tweeters, and the Perlisten S3ic had angled drivers.

At one-third of the price, the only other in-ceiling speaker that has an angled driver with a Beryllium tweeter, and that I'm prepared to pay for, is the Focal 1000 ICA6. Its 35-degree angled driver and adjustable Beryllium tweeter easily fits in-between my ceiling beams and ceiling void, and resolves the issue with my asymmetric rear wall. Excluding packaging, it weighs 3kg.

While the Focal 300 ICA6 is considerably cheaper, it doesn't anywhere near match the performance of the 1000 ICA6.

This is the kind and level of technical advice and problem resolution that I would have expected from a Trinnov dealer, rather than having to employ self-help. Without AI, I would not so easily have been able to generate the appropriate operational maths required to determine the best Dolby Atmos hemisphere for my specific listening room, and by each evaluated speaker, the required input data for Optimizer to blend the passive performance of the overhead speakers with my Meridian DSP's, nor to objectively compare the different overhead speakers against each other.

The remaining issue to deal with, besides employing a competent installer, is in choosing appropriate fire-safety custom installation speaker cabling. Rather than penny pinching, I've been looking at AudioQuest SLiP LSZH 14/2 (rather than the cheaper standard AudioQuest SLiP-DB 14/2). The 'Low Smoke Zero Halogen' (LSZH) cables satisfy BS EN 60754 (acid gas emission) and BS EN 61034 (smoke density) standards in the UK.

The other 14AWG LSZH option is Van Damme Ecoflex Install Grade LSZH speaker cables, or Kordz ONE Series 14/2 LSZH Speaker Cable.

What fire-rated in-ceiling speaker cables have others here in the UK installed?