Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Another DSP6000 vs. The World Thread

I keep trying to fight this Meridian addiction.. you know the deal.

So I have a pair of DSP5000v2's and a pair of M60v1's. Love them both. I use a DEQ2496 for room correction and also hot rodded the DEQ2496 analog section to feed the M60's. The new analog section really exposed the 5000's 2.5-way limitations in rough A/B resting with the 3-way M60, at least in my mind. The 5000’s are maybe a bit sweeter up top, but it’s damn close between the two with the M60/DEQ2496 sounding better to me. Then, a general upgrade to my home seating arrangement has triggered a general upgrade to my digital life. You know the deal.

Now I want a true 3-way DSP pair and I’m looking at the “big levers” in the Meridian legacy offerings:

DSP5500- 3-way reflex (ported) enclosure system; all forward firing (roughly point source) minus the port
Reflex 24dB/octave bass rolloff
Unclear if the chamber design has sealed mid-range. I would think so.

DSP6000- 3-way infinite baffle (sealed) enclosure; forward mid and tweeter, omni-directional bass

Unclear of chamber design but it’s sealed overall supposedly
Infinite baffle 12dB/octave bass rolloff
Maybe the two above lead to the sweet sounding reputation in many room types?

DSP7000- 4-way reflex (ported) enclosure system; all forward firing minus the port
Unclear if the chamber design has sealed mid-range. Probably?
Reflex 24dB/octave bass rolloff

It makes sense to me the 6000’s might be pretty forgiving regarding placement and room acoustics with the omni-directional bass setup and smooth roll off, where the reflex models have the rear ports to tinker with, but I don’t have any practicle experience.

I can’t find a DSP7000 around the SF bay at all. Same online. There are a number of 6000’s sitting online bit not too close and they are all overpriced considering they all have been there for a long time and there are a number of them. The 5500’s are available for reasonable prices and prices that are inline with my view of their value considering virtually all need to be recapped at this point. Both pairs of M60’s (one pair stolen) and the 5000’s had a number of failed caps and they all had the crispy resistors that needed to be addressed.

I like the 7000’s for aesthetics but kinda big.
The 6000’s are cool looking and I’ve liked sealed enclosures over the years. I’m unclear how the omni-directional driver arrangement will play with my long and rectangular room compared to my current setups, but I would think it would be a move enveloping sound which could be good in my room. Not sure.
The 5500’s are bigger than what I have, have the same look, yet same general technology and enclosure design as my M60/DEQ2496 combo which arguably sounds better than my 5000s. I feel the 5500’s would just be generally louder with more bass power.

Even with room correction, my big listing room has some dead spots and I’m not interested in room treatments for decorating reasons. If the 6000’s are more room forgiving, maybe I keep looking for a pair.

So, with all the hair splitting above, I’d like to know your advice and feedback. What say you, team Meridian?

I have owned 5000's 5500's and currently 6000's in a stereo setup used with meridian room correction below 200Hz

the 5500's had a tendency to overhang in the bass and are a lot more sensitive to placement than the 6000's with regard to exciting room modes. The 6000's are a much tighter design in the bass and image way better IMHO.

The roll off in the bass that you quoted applies only to non active speakers and have to be rolled off much steeper in order to achieve the bass response that they do for such relatively small enclosures in an active design, as Scotty would say you canny change the laws of physics.

Rgds
Stuart

I found 5500 and 7000 to be much the same. They can be a bit difficult to tame.

The 6000 is a finer design but very different. The key to understand, especially in a long room, is the side-firing bass units.

Bass is NOT omni-directional. Positioning and toe-in does matter (a lot).

5500/700 will project bass forwards down the long room.

6000 will project bass side-wards and the amount of toe-in used will determine

a) where any modes (+ and -) will occur, and
b) just how much bass energy is projected down the long axis of the room.

Will zero toe-in you just have to walk from back to front of the room to experience how much of that energy stays at the front.

With increasing toe-in you can feel that energy moving further into the room as the wall reflections get angled away from directly at the wall.

This all affects the balance of the sound and the listening experience.

All that said, you can find the sweetspot and really let them sing.