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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 thaluza

thaluza's avatar
thaluza
287 posts
 
I have read on a Meridian board that the 568 is very close to the 861 in audio quality. Here is a link to the board: http://www.meridianunplugged.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi.

FWIW, I wholeheartedly endorse the Meridian 568 pre/pro. I have a 568.2mm that I use with a Proceed HPA-3 and Spendor S8e's (main) and C9e (center). I like both the Trifield mode and the plain old 2 channel Stereo mode. In both modes, music is very natural, with a non-edgy, glare-free sound. Imaging is excellent. Trifield makes the soundstage bigger compared to Stereo. With Trifield, there is an excellent sense of transparency. From my listening position, I can't tell if music is coming from the center channel speaker (or the left and right main speakers).

I previously owned a Lexicon MC-12, which was great for reproducing the movie theater experience, but it is not in the same league as Meridian for music listening. I enjoyed the Lexicon, especially with the detail it was able to extract, but the center channel seemed prominent when listening in multi-channel Music mode, even with careful setup.

The only drawback for me with the 569.2mm is the lack of video switching, but I am able to get around that by programming my Pronto remote to do the switching instead.

Hope this helps!
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