Meridian 861 Upgrade Adds Room Correction

20-Jun-03

Meridian Audio Limited 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 equalization 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 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 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 incorporated into the all-digital Meridian signal path.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, both the measurement and the filter creation are handled virtually automatically. You 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 analyze 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, including Smart Source, which automatically detects a range of digital signals and applies the correct decoding, and the availability of Meridian and THXÆ post-processing for all inputs. All presets are now implemented with high-resolution processing and can handle input sampling rates up to 96 kHz. A new bass protection system has been implemented, incorporating a revised calibration procedure.Meridian System Software Version 4 is now available for the 861 processor. To utilize the new room correction software, an EF20 DSP card and an analog input, such as 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.Manufacturer's suggested retail pricing:Meridian 861 with Version 4, standard chassis, $14,740Meridian 861 with Version 4, rack-mount chassis without case, $15,330Meridian 861 with Version 4, rack-mount chassis with case, $15,700For more information, visit www.meridian-audio.com.

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