Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Thinking about DSP again

Chris - no the 5K rosewood is definitely not that orange. But it's a little less red than the 5200 rosewood. I have both the 5200 and the 5000 in rosewood; Just posted a couple of pictures that are good color representation and comparison here:
http://gallery.mac.com/kenliles#100033&bgcolor=black&view=carouseljs&sel=0

I'll leave them up for a while - feel free to download...

ken [/quote]

Seems the darker colors (rosewood and piano black) on the 5200's don't look so bad. But the light colors (cherry and silver) on the 5200's make the speakers look like Ski-Ball targets. Where on the 5000's that all look fairly good and I prefer light wood (when appropriate) which is why I like the looks of the 5000's.

P.S. I've confused Cherry and Rosewood TWICE when buying speakers and got me in deep do do.

Someone correct me if wrong - but I don't think Tri-field uses a sub unless forced by 'small' designation for front speakers. Unfortunately that's not configurable 'on the fly' either (requires M-config) so has to be done for all DSP modes...

ken
ps
my color opinion pretty much mirrors George's on the 5Ks and 5200... that's why I opted for Rosewood all around - piano black is another good choice too that goes with most any room decor...(according to the expert - my wife)

Ken,

You are correct. I have all my speakers set to small and all the bass redirected to the sub. I have a small B&W AS1 sub from a previous system. Since I listed to music in Direct mode, this sub does a decent job for movies. As noted, I am in the market for a Rel B2. For my tastes, I prefer the extra clarity you get from setting the speakers to small. What I noticed when setting the front speakers to large, is there was way too much mid-range weight coming from the center channel (MRC 210). I think this is in part why I prefer Direct mode versus Trifield.

Per my earlier post, this is why it took me so long to get to the sound I like. Even though Trifield sounds great, there is still a little something extra I'm not that fond of. And I've played with the settings until my fingers fell off, but I can't get that extra mid-range out.

Whenever I have friends (enthusiasts & audiophile alike) over to listen to music and use Direct mode, there are completely convinced that the center channel is playing. They actually get up and get on the floor and put their head next to the center channel because the don't believe me. And as soon as I switch to Trifield, it a very noticeable difference in the sound. The quality is still good, but you can definitely tell it's coming from the center channel speaker. In my setup, Trifield gets a "wow, I can tell the center is playing" response from listeners, whereas Direct gets a "WOW, WHOA, REALLY the center speaker is really not playing response!"

The biggest benefit of Trifield for me is, I can sit off center from the center listening position and it still sounds great. If I move from the center listening position using Direct, you can tell the difference.

If anyone has any suggestions to get rid of the extra weight from the center channel, please let me know. I want to revisit Trifield once I get my new sub.

Thanks!

Nick

My Sub works on Trifield with the 565. My M1500 blends in beautifully with the M60's.
This is really appreciated with some easy Jazz. The Double Bass is in the room.

The speakers dissappear when you get it right. Almost as if you could just get them out the room as they are not necessary.

I did spend alot of time working on my personal presets.

If you play loud, more speakers just shift more air and so more impact. Perhaps thats why some of the DTS music mixes can sound so powerfull. (The Who)

Trial and error, trial and error, thats the way, Cheers, Chris

Nick,

Unreleated to your lack of Trifield preference.

I assume it's a typo in your signature and you have 5200's L&R. Have you considered/tried setting all your front's to large? Seems a waste to set 5200's to small (unless they were rears with something larger in front). Also set them to FREE boundary and let MRC correct any nasty frequencies.

Nick
I would echo what George suggests about setting the front 3 by D5200's to Large.

As an addition, I would test eliminating a Subwoofer from CD Replay. This is easily done on the Meridian Configuration program by Setting Sub to "None" for Music and then to e.g. "LFE" for Movies only.

Personally, I always find a better balanced, more accurate and pleasing sound will be produced by using Full Range floor standers, which is what you have. Integrating a sub is difficult at best, and rarely does a sub exhibit the dynamics and response that a good floor stander like the D5200 does.

One other thing to try with Trifield is to change the "Depth" setting. I note that you have it set to Zero (I think you said). Pretty sure the default is +1. This default setting almost works counter intuitively in that a setting of +1 pushes the sound from the centre back, thereby increasing the perceived depth. Setting it a Zero has the effect of bringing the centre speaker "forward" which is possibly not a good idea (depending on the room and speaker set up)

Anyway, give it a try and make up your own mind

It's been a while since I thought this through (so others pls correct me if I'm out)...

If you are using 'direct' then this doesn't use the sub which effectively means your 5200's are in full range mode. 'Trifield' does use the sub, so, if you find that it's lighter in the bass, it's likely to be that the sub and 5200's have not been matched closely enough w.r.t. x-over and levels.

Compare 'direct' and 'stereo' presets for bass weight as 'stereo' brings in the sub (IIRC).

As Chris says above, you can get Trifield to effectively make the centre channel disappear as a point source. For off-centre listening, it's very effective. However, as you also mention above, you can get a very very very good phantom centre from just the L&R. Why would you want to use the centre DSP?

I periodically wrestle with this. I'm currently using L&R only as my G68 is on hols in Huntingdon and it's quite nice hearing the phantom. However, when I was doing trifiled, it was an amzing wall of sound (not in the Phil Spectre sense)

So, it's horses for courses.

Thanks guys. I am going to run MRC again now. I'll let you know the results I get.

Thanks!

Nick

does anyone have any photos of their d5000s in the lighter cherry colour?

not me...but I can do a Rosewood (darker) pic if you need.

thanks Nick. I've seen the Rosewood finish courtesy of Ken

Some in a current eBay shop sale: Link