2. amps-preamps
  3. 1180987221

Anybody fan or Meridian 3 ch stereo?

A long while back I was working for a shop selling Krell,Mc,B&W etc and guy ordered up B&W 803N as soon as it came out.But we also brought along a 800 series center.o my surpise there were no rears and this was a muisc only system.Then he turned on 3 channel music mode and it was great nothing like I had ever heard from a HT reciever or high end HT pre that had that option in past.He just said Meridian had figured out the steering logic better than anybody else.Then I rembered reading that durring 30's when Bell Labs was developing Stereo it was originally going to be a 3 speaker system with a "fill" or "Phantom" speaker as they called it.No sure if this would have led to difference in 78 groove tech but I think not.But marketting folks decided for economy a 2 speker system might not sound as good but be easier to sell.So wondering if anybody knows Meridian and listens in that mode and can commen on it.The new gear is a bit out of my league price wise but wondering if there is a decent sounding (568???) pre that would have well developed 3 channel music mode and 5.1 as bonus.Know they have sold the sound and video switching boxes sperately but I never liked idea wirring video through switching box anyway since I don't wan signal to be messed up for soem copying convenience anyway.Any Meridian fans out there "steer"(sorry about that) me in right direction.
Cheers
Chazzbo
chazzbo

Showing 1 response by kjweisner

kjweisner's avatar
kjweisner
293 posts
 
If you're looking to try this on even more of a budget, pick up a Meridian 565. It was the predecessor to the 568 and includes Trifield, as well as a couple other music oriented processing modes (Super Stereo and Music Logic). These can be had for under a grand and sound fantastic. I've owned one as the heart of a full Meridian digital theater (565, 562v, 518, 586.2 and DSP5000s) and as much as I like the new form factor of Meridian's G series, I can't justify replacing this setup. The 565 is a relative pain to setup since you have to use soft keys on the front panel (vs. using Meridian's Window-based setup software), but the results are well worth it.

Whenever I use that system for music (either straight audio or concert videos), I choose Trifield. It sounds very natural and "unprocessed." Ditto for Super Stereo. It's not at all gimmicky and doesn't fatigue the way some other soundfield processing does.
More to discover