Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian at CEDIA

Out of those listed on the website, true. But don't forget the Cary is shipping now and when LPCM is all you're looking for, then there's the choice of Lexicon, Halcro, NAD, Audiolab and a few others.

It's not clear to me that a 4xSPDIF solution would necessarily require a hardware upgrade - it's possible that it could be done in firmware, at the expense of eliminating one of the current 3x inputs. If the extension box had a pair of additional 3x inputs, you'd lose nothing. There would be some extra DSP used to process the additional channel pair, but that capacity is probably there already anyway.

Having used both 5 and 7 channel setups in my room, it's not clear to me that the extra channels will be worth it for most users. I've found that type and placement of speakers, and room acoustics, had a much more significant effect than the extra speaker pair. Of course, my experience was with Meridian processing generating the side speakers, rather than true discrete channels, but still I'm skeptical.

Scott - I agree that it may be possible to send 4ch into the G68, too (perhaps the 6ch mixdown is for the 568.2mm). The inputs may be muxed, or even something creative (as some have suggested here) like sending the four rear channels @48kHz as one link at 96kHz. SPDIF does support multichannel links (but it effectively reduces the sample rate).

On another point - the CEDIA press releases are now at the Meridian Media site:

http://media.Meridian-audio.com/press/

Mer_810CEDIAPR.pdf 08-Sep-2008 15:46 108K
Mer_8082CEDIAPR.pdf 08-Sep-2008 15:46 114K
Mer_AD88CEDIAPR.pdf 08-Sep-2008 15:46 112K
Mer_DSP7200CEDIAPR.pdf 08-Sep-2008 15:46 109K
Mer_MF10DVP1080CEDIAPR.pdf 08-Sep-2008 15:46 124K
Mer_SpeakerLinkAC11PRCEDIAPR.pdf

Since almost all movies are 48kHz, you could multiplex 2 channels into one 96kHz channel ... it's just an idea ... the surround and side channels could share the 3rd input this way.

[edit] damn ... just too late! [/edit]

now that's synchronicity!

I don't know about $500 receiver :)- I did briefly compare an 861w IA45+ HD-DVD player with anthem and preferred direct to anthem. For regular DVD, no brainer 861 was better! Unfortunately the 861 I have does not have multi-in, and I don't feel like paying $1K+ the card either.


The silence does speak volumes:

Levinson 40-$2K HDMI upgrade offered last year
Anthem-offers HDMI 2+ yrs
Halcro-offers HDMI 1+ yr
BK-offers HDMI today
Classe-offers HDMI today
Bryston,Parasound-openly talked about new offering
Lexicon-2+ yrs (Thx Shawn)

Sorry, as a 861 owner I feel let down {I have G91 as well}. I am not asking HDMI for my F80 since Meridian never positioned it or alluded to updating to latest

cheers,
Kishore
P.S>John, let me thank you for taking initiative. As I mentioned in my post earlier I look forward to your impressions as well (besides official communication).

"Anthem-offers HDMI 1+ yr "

2-3 years for the Anthem.

"The only other company Lexicon is holding out."

Nope. The MC-12HD has been out for over 2 years. The MV-5 has been out about 9 months.

Shawn

I meant Lexicon holding out on HDMI1.3- at least that is what I read on AVS..

Was MC12HD offered as an upgrade to MC12- I think not.

cheers,
Kishore

"Was MC12HD offered as an upgrade to MC12- I think not."

Lexicon ran their typical trade in policy when the MC-12HD came out.

Shawn

And do any of those systems allow digital all the way to the each speakers crossovers? THAT is why Meridian is a little late. Even if you don't own DSP speakers it's a huge part of Meridian business and they had to come up with a solution that would work. Even if you don't own DSP speakers the Digital outputs are there.

Kish:

The list leaves out a few details, like Halcro just shipping surround capability earlier this year. So saying 1+ years is generous

I'm disappointed that M didn't announce anything, but I just see this as building my virtuousness up (Patience is a virtue ).


Cheers,

Bottom line...other companies of similar or smaller size are moving forward. Meridian still feels contrained not to speak. If they are delaying simply to find way to keep their speaker business going...it tells you what is more important to them. Not to mention that the one new product at the show was the Dunhill table/clock radio where they sold their engineering expertise...I won't even comment on that...but that seems strategically silly versus focusing on their core business. While I have been hard on M...I truly hope they figure things out....