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

Other companies have made a virtue of keeping certain functions physically separated in their products (eg Naim and their power supplies) so it needn't be a deal breaker for potential new customers should Meridian always insist that the HDMI functions be in a breakout box.

On the broader point, I applaud the fact that Meridian will release a solution which will breathe new life into processors discontinued 4 years ago (568.2mm). Top marks!

Cheers

George

Might as well! We could all die tomorow as we get sucked into a blackhole.

If Naim were to design a new product from the ground up, they would still separate the PSU as they do now.
If Meridian were designing a new 861 from the ground up, bet your bottom dollar they wouldnt put HDMI switching into an external box. IMHO Its a kludge and we should just accept that. When they are ready, I'm sure there will be a plug in card for the 861....although when I wouldnt want to bet my far from last dollar!

EDIT: PS, I do agree there is a benefit in this product for older non card based systems.

Mind you, my special mains cables are shielded from that, whereas yours will vanish without trace!

Cheers

George

PS Apolls for being woefully off topic!

One good thing for Meridian is that its customers are still complaining. It's when they don't care enough any more to continue complaining that they'll need to worry.

:-) At CliffS and Mr Meridian!

Mind you, my special mains cables are shielded from that, whereas yours will vanish without trace![/quote]
Do you really believe the Higgs Shielding has been proper tested?

Ian, I believe VK is right. It has been said many times that Meridian does not want HDMI going into their audio processors directly. That is part of the reason for the external solution (not that it's just compatible with what is out today).

What is more likely to happen is to build this box into a Meridian BD Player.

So waiting for a rolling upgrade to the G68 will get you 8 channels instead of 6. Not a built in HDMI box.

I really do believe Meridian had all their customers in mind and the future with this solution because it allows you to hook any BD player, it allows hooking possible Meridian BD player. It does 6 and 8 channels. It keeps HDMI out of the audio processors.

I think the only thing missing might be SPDIF pass through. But a G68 has oodles of inputs :-). Encourages 568.2 folks to upgrade if they want it all. But if I was still using/loved a 568.2 I'd be one happy camper.

I generally agree with Asa Post. What a load of whining here guys- oh, other companies are doing it now- this and that. What you have left out is how well are they doing it? HDMI, lets see, ever evolving spec that the custom installers have had a bear of a time with (its a four letter word to them)- only really useful for the M crowd for next gen audio which is still a small (but admittedly important) segment of the market- I can understand why M is taking their time to do it right. The external box is a great idea because as said, it will work with a variety of their processors and keep the HDMI out of the processor.

Suggestion for M: anyone buying the 810 projector will likely be doing an all Meridian system so you should think about including the break out box as part of that system or build the break out box features directly into the video processor and the VP would have the MHR outputs.

I think if you want to be critical of Meridian, you should be critical of strategic missteps such as total lack of retail presence in the USA. Virtually no one is aware of them. It doesn't matter how good you are if no one knows you exist. From what I can see from my vantage point as an enthusiast/ hobbiest in this industry- its not even the best products which usually succeed- its the ones that marry convenience with good enough/ solid performance and the right price point. An element of "convenience" is easy to purchase. Right now Meridian is the polar opposite of that. You want your HDMI box faster? It is this lack of mind share/ inability to grow the business that is going to make it more and more difficult for Meridian to compete and ultimately survive. Thats where the whining should be directed IMHO.

best regards,
Jerry

Remember, from an audio engineering perspective, Meridian tends to do things brilliantly, do it right and, more often than not, do it differently to others.

Kludge? I'm not so sure. There is possibly one very good reason for not having HDMI connections in the audio processors:

An HDMI stream cannot be audio alone - audio must piggy-back on the video data - and the digital video bandwidth of video and eight channels of hi-res audio is *much* higher than the 96kHz audio processed in Meridian processors. This probably means more RF interference which won't be great for the analogue side of the processors.

Of course, it could also be Bob's hatred of a marketing-driven botched standard for which the correct way to transfer digital audio was never an important consideration.

Also, the external box makes a lot of sense from a design and manufacturing perspective. Even ignoring the 568.2MM (which I think Meridian would be quite within its rights to do), there are seven G68 variants, two G61 variants, and the 861. The external box solution is a single piece of kit that meets *most* needs without *any* alterations being required to the processors. And it wil work with the 568.2MM too.

That is an excellent point, with a corollary that hasn't received attention here: if Meridian hadn't had the foresight to create a proprietary encrypted SPDIF interface (MHR) 10 years back, they and their entire existing speaker customer base would be SOL right now with respect to next gen audio.

Someone should turn this into a new thread. So looking at the description of the new M box from page 15 of this thread, it sounds like a reasonable approach. My question is if an input device has only one HDMI output, does the M box separate the audio and video to provide an HDMI output to one's monitor. The description doesn't indicate such a video output is included.

Tim