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Meridian Audio Limited, the award-winning British
manufacturer of digital home theatre systems, has released a significant
upgrade to its flagship digital processor, the 861.
The new Version 4 software, coupled with the new EF20 DSP Card for the 861
includes a completely new feature: Meridian Room Correction. Conventional
room equalisation systems attempt to simply invert the room/speaker response
- something which cannot be done accurately and produces undesirable effects
such as listener position dependence, ringing, pre-echo and loss of
headroom. Meridian's Room Correction system, in contrast, relies on
controlling room modes at low frequencies, where room problems are the most
noticeable and extremely effective results can be obtained for a broad range
of listening positions. It should, of course, be remembered that room
correction supports, rather than replaces, good room acoustics.
Meridian Room Correction uses the immense power of Meridian's on-board DSP
(Digital Signal Processing) system to first measure the room and then
automatically build a series of digital filters that reduce the
reverberation time of significant room modes. As the filters generated are
entirely digital in nature they can be created without any artifacts and
easily incorporated into the all-digital Meridian signal path. The result is
a very noticeable improvement in the sound of a room, calming down
resonances and smoothing out the overall acoustic behaviour.
The measurement of a room's acoustic characteristics is normally difficult
to carry out without expensive and complicated software and hardware. With
Meridian Room Correction, however, both the measurement and the
filter-creation are handled virtually automatically. You just set up a
simple measurement microphone - such as a cheap sound-level meter obtained
from a local electronics store - in the listening position and plug its
output into an analog input on the processor, choose the Room Correction
option in the Meridian setup program, and watch as the system performs
measurements of each speaker in the room and builds the appropriate filters.
Multiple sets of filters can be defined to be associated with different
presets for different types of listening.
Along the way, the room correction program develops sophisticated "before
and after" "waterfall" plots of the room's frequency response, which can be
used to analyse room acoustics and examine the performance of the filters.
In addition, filter information can be displayed, edited and even created
numerically or graphically by an installer or advanced user.
In addition to Room Correction, Version 4 software adds a number of other
enhancements: Smart Source, which automatically detects a wide range of
digital signals and applies the correct decoding, and Meridian and THX
post-processing, are now available on all inputs; all presets are now
implemented with high-resolution processing and can handle input sampling
rates up to 96 kHz; and a new bass protection system has been implemented,
incorporating a revised calibration procedure.
Meridian System Software Version 4 will be available in early May for the
861 processor. To utilize the new room correction software, an EF20 DSP card
and an analog input, such as is provided on the IA00 analog input card, are
required. Both cards are fitted as standard in new 861 units. Existing
Version 3 861s can be upgraded by an authorized Meridian dealer, including
the addition of an EF20 card and Version 4 software. Earlier units may
require a factory upgrade.
Meridian was founded in 1977 by Allen Boothroyd and Robert Stuart. With a
25-year history of innovation and development of the highest quality
consumer audio systems, the award-winning company is widely recognized as a
world leader in digital and analog audio reproduction. Meridian developed
the world's first audiophile CD player, the first consumer digital surround
controller (in 1994), developed the MLP lossless packing system mandated for
use in DVD-Audio, and is the only UK audio manufacturer to be a member of
the DVD Forum Working Group 4. The company's Digital Theatre systems are
unique in the industry, maintaining a super-quality digital audio signal
throughout the path from source to amplifier, and using digital signal
processing to generate advanced crossover characteristics that would be
impossible with conventional passive analog systems. For more information
please visit www.meridian-audio.com.
Availability: Now Shipping
Manufacturer's Suggested retail pricing:
4.0 Standard Chassis $ 14,740.00
4.0 Rack Mount Chassis Without Case $ 15,330.00
4.0 Rack Mount Chassis With Case $ 15,700.00.
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