Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems G95 delivery

I doubt folks buying a G95 will have a 32 LCD. It may be on the lower end of the Merdian line but anyone considering Meridian usually has a few bucks to spend on toys. G95 isn't quite mass market as 32 LCD's are.

You get the Idea though George, all I have is a 32 lCD. Its all I have room for.
I still want it to sound good.
Sound is 70% of the Movie I am reliably informed. Thats why so many British films can seem a bit weak, they dont, on the whole, do the sound thing well enough.

You watch em sell............. Chris

I agree with you Chris.
George - over here (UK) we're often far more cramped for room!
As a bonus I would be very surprised if the CD playback is anything less than spectacular.
And though I love DVD-A, it is, for most, somewhat on the periphery (sp?).
Cheers,

Ed.

The problem on the CD playback is the glaring omission on the G95 of PLII Music (only PLII Movie is provided).

So, in addition to the omission of DVD-A, the further lack of music DSP presets cripples the G95 as a music-centred device.

A G91 (with PLII Music and Movie presets) with G55 is therefore a more rounded music-centric system compared to the G95 - but unfortunately this combination costs significantly more.

With Trifield, who on earth 'Needs' PL11 Music? (I know, your going to tell me now)

It by no way cripples the G95. I hav'nt got PL11 Music and have no desire, need or intension of getting it or even exploring it.

People who are new to Meridian are blown away 'as is' on my old system.

In fact, untill now, I had never heard of PL11 Music so an aspiring Joe sixpack crawling out of the iPod slime will not be dissadvantaged!! lol

What ever our own personal opinions, I believe it will find alot of friends.

Cheers, Chris

P.S. I aint heard it yet, but I do trust Meridian.

Naim, Arcam and Linn provide PLII Music on their products - faciltating ajustments for centre width, panorama and dimension. Trifield isn't just the preserve of Meridian.

If Arcam's Movie Solo can provide all of this (including video upscaling, DVD-A and SACD) for half the price of the G95, why are Meridian penny-pinching on the feature-set of their product?

"Trifield isn't just the preserve of Meridian."

Actually it is. I know of no other company that includes it in their equipment. When I hear talk of people jumping the Meridian ship to go elsewhere, I wonder if they realize they are giving up Trifield?


"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot."

You got to me, Frank!

I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon auditioning the G95 through B&W and then Mission bookshelf loudspeakers, plus a Panasonic 37" Plasma (similar to mine). The excellent B&W PV-1 sub was used throughout. The Mission's won over the B&W's. I still experience a 'nasal' quality with the B&W's, unfortunately.

The previous day, I had auditioned the Naim n-vi - but discovered that it's DVI output won't handshake with Panasonic plasmas (but will with Pioneer panels) - so, that's out the window.

When Meridian state that the G95 runs cool I'd hate to touch it when it gets hot. After four hours watching and listening it was very warm (located in an open media stand).

The unit, as used, exhibited a couple of alarming foibles. For one, and for no apparent reason, the G95 dropped the front two channels - leaving the centre and rears still functioning. Switching-off and on again was the only way to solve this problem. More problematic, during one concert disc, the audio menu was changed from Dolby 2.0 to DTS 5.1. Although everything was fine initially (background music playing in menu setting) as soon as the concert started again there was very loud and high-pitched feedback through all channels. Again, the problem was only solved by switching-off and on.

I'm told that a sister dealership managed to 'blow-up' the centre channel ampification. Also, a few faulty G95's have apparently been returned to Meridian.

Picture quality nonetheless was as excellent as one would expect - with none of the yellow-ish skintones that Trumper reported. Even with 85db sensitivity B&W's, the volume of the G95 is loud (no need for extra amplification here). With the Mission's it went even louder (90db sensitivity).

Listening in stereo becomes unsatisfactory once you experience Trifield - but I still maintain that lack of PLII Music is a serious oversight by Meridian, especially when it is available on the Naim n-vi and Arcam solo. This DSP preset is available on the 568 and the G68. This would facilitate finer focus and steering of the music. Trying PLII Movie on music material, for me, was also unsatisfactory.

The G95 clearly shines with DTS 5.1 material. Take it from me, there is no need whatsover to use 'full-range' passive floorstanders with the G95. The integration of the Mission bookshelf loudspeakers and the B&W PV-1 is remarkable. You would be wasting your money otherwise. Subsequently, I won't now be buying the Linn Komponent 110's.

Will I buy the G95, though? It's quirks and glitches are a real concern. I would have expected a perfect product to have been released by Meridian (especially since a number of units from my neck-of-the-woods have exhibited problems). We shall have to wait and see.

Every new release has some firmware glitches. PLII Music I never use it. I suspect if you perhaps tune PLII for a song maybe you can get it to sing. But what's so nice about Trifield is you don't have to fiddle with it based on material. My next favorite is Music mode for music. PLII may have lots of parameters but I never managed to got it to sound natural.

Only four weeks out of the stable, there's already a G95 for sale on eBay (is it anyone we know?)...

http://cgi.eBay.co.uk/Meridian-G95-...272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

As far as I can tell a G91 has the same DSP modes as the G95 (no PLII Music, Ambisonics, Music, Super, MusicLogic etc.). No biggy in my opinion, fun play with but in practice I never use them.

...but the glaring omission of DVD-A on the G95 compared to the G91 makes the G91 a better music-centred product. What's more, on the G91, there is the option of adding a G68/G61 to get the additional DSP presets prior to amplification via MHR.

This option is somewhat closed to you on the G95. While you can add a G61/G68 via analogue connections you then have to add additional amplification to take advantage of these presets (thereby wasting the G95's on-board amplification). So, you might as well have bought a G91 in the first place.