Meridian Unveils Version 3 Upgrades To 800 Player And 861 Reference Surround Controller

20-Feb-02

Meridian Audio, Ltd. has announced important upgrades to Version 3 of the 800 Player and 861 Reference Surround Controller.A major enhancement is the addition of MHR Smart Link, a digital multichannel connection which directly couples the 800 Player to the 861 Reference Surround Controller and to Meridian's family of DSP loudspeakers. The MHR Smart Link uses proprietary encryption and signaling technology and is the first system to be officially sanctioned for DVD-Audio content protection. For the first time, the full resolution of multichannel audio from DVD-Audio recordings (as well as those from CD and DVD-Video) can be losslessly transferred in the digital domain from player, to surround controller, to loudspeaker. The MHR Smart Link has profound ramifications for the system. By passing digitally the full bandwidth and resolution of the original recording to the 861 Reference Surround Controller, it is able to offer the highest possible sound quality on both its studio-grade analog outputs (for conventional, analog domain amplifiers and speakers), or on individual MHR-capable digital outputs (for the multiple DSP speakers of a Meridian Digital Theater). Importantly, by passing the signals at full resolution between 800 and 861, the system can provide perfect bass management for all sources where it belongs -- in the surround controller. The MHR Smart Link does much more than provide perfect information transfer; it also carries important additional information from the 800 Player to the 861 Reference Surround Controller. By informing the Controller about the disc and the current contents, the 861 can automatically select optimum DSP modes and settings for movies, for music, for stereo sources and for multichannel sources. This means that, with no intervention from the user, the 861 can provide optimum processing for any source -- be it from CD, DolbyÆ Digital or DTSÆ Digital Surround on a movie, PCM from a music video, and of course, high resolution multichannel or stereo from DVD-Audio. The 861 Reference Surround Controller offers comprehensive setup options so that the most appropriate bass management, signal processing, and speaker array rendering can be automatically provided, with no intervention from the user whatsoever -- a welcome feature at a time when ever-expanding offerings of source materials and formats holds the potential for considerable confusion. However, there is much more to this upgrade than the benefits afforded by the MHR Smart Link. This upgrade provides full multichannel capability for high resolution sources through the whole system and adds DVD-Audio capability for the first time. Meridian was an important contributor to the world DVD-Audio standard, which mandates Meridian Lossless Packingô (MLPô) as the format for the highest quality sound. To enable full multichannel high resolution capability, the 861 Reference Surround Controller boasts a newly-developed digital signal processing engine with unprecedented power, flexibility, and future configurability. The 800 Player receives substantial upgrades in both video and audio processing and establishes a new benchmark through tangible improvements in all areas. Since the link is multichannel, Meridian now offers the option to decode movies inside the player. This brings two important benefits: First by lifting the Dolby Digital decoding task from the 861, it is free to apply its considerable signal processing power to optimize resolution -- typically working at 48-bit internal precision. Second, the extensive DSP power in 800 can be used to provide upsampling and resolution enhancement for all sources including CD and DVD-Video. The resolution enhancement offered by the 800 Player can upscale the audio from any disc (including DVD-Audio) and send it, via Meridian's proprietary link, to the 861 for further processing -- which may include upsampling, bass management, and upscaling for playback with as many as eight channels and ten speakers.""The improvements in Version 3 of the 800 Series are groundbreaking, technically sophisticated, and herald the system architecture and benchmark for all high performance AV systems for the future. Importantly, the performance gains are anything but incremental,"" says Bob Stuart, Chairman of Meridian Audio. ""By using an approved encrypted link between the 800 and 861, we can bring the full digital processing power of both components to bear on a recording today. The results are astounding. Of course we are delighted to introduce the first true high-end playback system for DVD-Audio. Without question, DVD-Audio provides the highest sound quality potential for music in the home. But the benefits of Version 3 are not just for DVD-Audio discs,"" Stuart continues. ""We have been astonished by the results when our special upsampling/resolution enhancement process is applied to movie sound. Important low-level details and a much clearer sense of space bring intimacy to many Dolby Digital sound tracks -- without of course sacrificing impact when needed. 800 and 861 have opened our ears to a multichannel movie experience that we had not fully anticipated."" Considerable work has been done in this upgrade to provide yet further improvements for CD playback. Meridian and their 800 Series have worldwide acclaim for CD player performance. These new designs permit upsampled multichannel playback of CD sources, using the DSP power on hand to double the effective sampling frequency, to use 48-bit internal precision and to render up to eight channels. Says Stuart, ""CD will remain a crucial source of music for many years and it has been a joy to rediscover our CD collections, whether for two-channel playback or using one of Meridian's proprietary multichannel modes such as the newly-enhanced Trifield, on this Version 3 800 Series system.""The 800 stands as a uniquely-capable full-function player, featuring Meridian's proprietary disc-navigation software and CPU implementation, exclusive multiple-FIFO data buffering, and other measures that eliminate time-domain errors. The net result is audio quality prompting Bob Stuart to declare the 800 Player ""the best optical player we've yet heard."" The 800 also delivers studio-grade picture quality that Meridian firmly believes is quite simply the best available from the DVD format. The 800 can also be used as a system controller in some systems. Since it is a card-based design, analogue and/or digital inputs can be added and the user can specify digital or analogue outputs with up to 192 kHz/24-bit precision.For its part, the 861 Reference Surround Controller's advanced DSP engine enables high resolution audio to extend further, with 96 kHz/24-bit resolution for more channels than before. Meridian has been able to develop new modes and enhancements, with refinements such as flexible format-based subwoofer processing for improved real-world bass, speaker array rendering and spatial elements such as ""height"" speakers. The 861 is the first surround controller to provide full support for new DVD-Audio recordings that include height -- the so-called 2+2+2 formats. The processing power is also available for future software updates. Also a card-based system, the 861 offers a range of options including output capabilities of 192 kHz or 96 kHz/24-bit analog and a range of extremely high resolution optional multichannel analog inputs, which enable the 861 to fully support the many DVD-Audio or SACD players with analogue outputs. Extensive future possibilities will be dealer-installable via software updates, and may include new surround modes and new functions, or enhancements to existing capabilities.The existing capabilities of the Model 800 Series are all retained. These include 7.1 Dolby Digital, THXÆ, Surround EXô, DTS, Meridian EZ, support for 2+2+2 playback via up to as many as ten speakers, Dolby Pro Logic II processing for stereo and matrix-encoded sources, discrete AmbisonicsÆ, MPEG, MP3 and the full panoply of Meridian's proprietary modes for reproducing stereo and multichannel recordings with unmatched depth, dynamic detail, and spatial precision.The Version 3 Upgrades for both the 861 Reference Surround Controller and 800 Player are currently available, each at retail prices between $17,000 and $20,000, depending on configuration.For more information, visit Meridian online at www.meridian-audio.com.

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