Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian DSP 5200 Reviews?

Hi Insomniac,

I assume you have never compared 5200s with 3100, if you had you would not be asking this question. 5200s really rock. Where are you based? (add it to your profile it helps other HH to give better advice). Go seek a demo and believe your own ears, don`t by on specification alone. If you can't find a dealer a local fellow HHer might oblige.

Just how close together would the 5200s be to not be able to fit a centre?

If you`re so space limited as to not be able to fit a centre between a pair of 5200s then I don't think you need a centre at all.

It is much better to go with a pair 5200s and not have a centre; then if in the future in a different room you could always add one.

Given your constraints; if I were in your shoes that's what I would do no question.

Do you eventually intend to go multi-channel and have rears? Even without a centre you can have at 4.0 or 4.1 system as M kit supports phantom centres.

Regards,
Carl.

Just updated my profile. I am in the US.

I'd say the LR speakers would be about 6-8 feet apart with the TV setup in between. I do not intend to add rear speakers.

Just a thought.....I don't know if 3 x 5200 occupies much more space that 3 x 3100 -- when you consider stands etc.

You don't have to have identical for Trifield to work - it just gets better the closer you get to the same.

If you are quite narrow in siting 2 channels you may find tri doesn't give you much benefit.

....in which case go 2 x 5200 and decide on a centre much later when you've had chance to listen and aclimatise.

With my old setup, I had a 5000c siting on top of my CRT-TV so that the tweeters where a simaler height to each other, but now a days I have a 5500c on a low stand with my flat pannel on top of it; it lowers the tweeter high but with some tweeking with the Trifield parms it sounds great.

My 5200s are about 10.5 feet apart and I normaly listen to Trifield however, some times I switch to direct and it still blows me away.

Your too far away for me to demo my 5200s to you but in NY I'm sure you find a suitable pair to demo.

Against your stated set of criteria, I would make the following comments

a) A Pair of DSP5200 set up 7-8 feet apart will sound better IMHO than a Trio of DSP3100 within the same constraints

b) Adding a centre DSP3100hc mounted below your TV will likely only add a little to the overall experience. If your 5.2k pair were further apart than 8ft max, then this may change. (As much as I like Trifield, I do believe that its benefits reduce significantly as you move the Front L&R nearer together. This is not exactly surprising!!)

In my opinion a pair of 5200s sounds better than a trio of 3100s. I recently auditioned both (the 3100 system also had 2 sets of 420s for surround processed through a G68). The 5200s that were set up in 2 channel stereo with a G91 sounded significantly better. I was surprised at the difference! Bruce Greene

This thread is not good for me as I will be creating a new home theater room and will be going with Meridian DSP speakers and I can already "feel" the dollars draining from by bank account...

A related question that I have is that assuming that I go with 3 5200's for the LCR what are the pros / cons of going with 5200's for the rears / surrounds as I do not think that the budget will allow for 2 (or even 4) more 5200's?

TIA.

Hi Joel,

My reasoning was that if I "compromised" I would always be reminded of it and regret it, but if I bought used I would soon forget how I procured them. Used prices are so low relative to the incredible durability of the speakers as confirmed by HH2 that they are a "lifetime" purchase. Time has so far proven this correct.

Also I rationalized smaller speakers for the surrounds as for music with Trifield the LF and RF are doing most of the work. With movies the purpose of surround is largely/somewhat "effect" so I don't think that perfect quality is as important. Unfortunately for movies the center is important but I had a simple space issue and HH2 confirmed that this is not a huge compromise.

I realize my 2 points lead to opposite conclusions, but for my set up I rationalized both points to think that I'd rather have used 8k's than new 5200's for the fronts and besides I would save the cost of a sub. For the rears I likewise thought better used 5200's than new 3100's.

You didn't expect a simple answer did you?

Good luck and aloha,

Dolf,

No, a simple answer was NOT expected but I am now confused...will have to re-read your post a few times to fugure thing out..

Thanks.

I am with Dolf here. Meridian speakers are so well built that buying from Audiogon is fairly safe, provided you buy from a good seller. And lately, even Weinstein has been selling demo pairs of 5200s for $4500! For that price you can buy five for less than the price of two new

Wow, that *IS* an incredible discount...that said, and apologies for this, other than the addition / change to SpeakerLink connectivity what is the difference between the MKI and the MKII versions?