Meridian Debuts 800 Reference CD/DVD Player
Meridian, the company that invented the high-end CD player in 1983, has long led the field in digital technology ñ in the pursuit of better sound, the company has consistently developed higher resolution solutions for playback servo mechanisms, control software, digital conversion, resolution enhancement, and digital interfaces, as well as pioneering the use of multiple PLL systems. Meridianís digital products have defined the vanguard, winning countless industry awards and giving their owners years of musical enjoyment. Living up to this tradition, the 800 Reference CD/DVD players is said to set the bar for DVD and CD reproduction. Built Like A Computer Because It Is A Computer Meridianís 800 Reference DVD Player is Meridianís absolute statement on CD reproduction; it also provides, according to the company, the finest DVD playback possible. The 800 is constructed like a computer: A carefully selected and optimized DVD ROM drive extracts data from CD, CD-R, CD-V or DVD, while all the electronics that manipulate and decode the digital data and prepare the video reside on plug-in cards. The drives are replaceable (the 800 has slots for two ñ which offers some interesting possibilities for future development). Its software can be updated from Meridianís Web site using a computer with an RS232 connection. All of this ensures the highest absolute quality and flexibility, while also guaranteeing simplified upgradability as technology advances, the consumerís requirements change or new formats emerge. ROM drives are also used because they recover data from CDs or DVDs perfectly, says Meridian. Once the data has been extracted from the disc, the 800 uses three levels of memory-based de-jittering, as well as three layers of error correction, to guarantee the lowest jitter and highest data-integrity possible. While other players can only lower jitter through the reduction of drive vibration, Meridian says that the 800ís memory architecture completely eliminates the problem. ""Forever"" Isnít What It Used To Be While CD was touted by some companies as ""perfect sound forever"" at the time of its introduction, Meridian has been able to consistently build players that provided better and better sound with each successive generation ñ and also as disc recording and mastering techniques have improved. Through the years, Meridian has been responsible for identifying and remedying player design problems such as jitter, mechanical feedback, servo instability, playability, converter linearity and interface design. Bob Stuart, Meridianís chief designer and Chairman of the Acoustic Renaissance for Audio, has been instrumental in the evolution of the audio formats for DVD ñ in fact, MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) has been selected as the definitive coding system for the DVD-Audio format (product due in 2000). Naturally, the Meridian design team has applied the sum of their experience to DVD. More importantly, Meridian also brought crucial psycho-acoustic and psychovisual insights to the 800. As a result, the company says that itís able to offer sound and picture quality that is second to none. It offers the features needed t exploit DVD in a high-end home theatre and to interface with state-of-the-art digital surround processors (like the Meridian 861) as well as with projection systems. DVD Is DifferentÖ While DVDs and CDs look similar, DVD Video is a totally different format: track pitch and pit-size are smaller on DVD and it can store information on multiple layers. DVDís increased information storage capacity allows a disc to hold up to 24 times the data contained on a CD ñ enough to facilitate many powerful applications. DVD Video, for example, using high-quality MPEG-2 video compression with Dolby Digital, or DTS Digital Surround or MPEG audio sound formats, a single DVD can hold a whole motion picture. For the first time ever, Meridian says that movie buffs can achieve picture quality close to the original formats ñ bypassing all the depredations of analog storage; and, with the 800, bypassing the degradations of analog video interchange. DVD Video also has the bandwidth to store new audio formats such as Dolby Digital, MPEG Surround, MPEG Extended for 7.1 channel movie sound, MPEG Audio and DTS Digital Surround for movies, music and performance videos, and ñ last but not least ñ extended digital formats including MLP and 96kHz or 88.2kHz 24-bit PCM audio. Sound Quality DVD has the potential to provide the highest sound quality, but it would be a mistake to ignore the very real importance of CD in the coming years. The 800 Reference DVD Machine takes a radical new approach to playing both CD and DVD discs. The 800 reads the audio and video data asynchronously in blocks using high-speed, high-integrity DVD ROM drives. This data is checked for errors, corrected and triple buffered to ensure that the audio output timing is independent of the drives and that the picture has incredible stability. Another Meridian ""first"" is using the 800ís powerful Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to enhance the playback of CDs. The 800ís complex digital filter automatically upsamples data to double its sampling rate, which allows the unit to more accurately reproduce the sound on the disc. No other DVD player does this. Meridianís proprietary DSP allows 44.1kHz 16-bit CDs to be reproduced at 88.2kHz with 24-bit word length, while DVDs with 48kHz 20-bit audio are upsampled to 96kHz 24-bit. The 800 also combines upsampling with what the company terms Meridian Resolution Enhancement, which was first used in the 518 DSP Mastering Processor, to further improve any signal fed into it. The results, says Meridian, are unrivaled clarity and fidelity. The 800 feeds 96kHz to the analog outputs (if fitted) and, where copy regulation permits, to the digital outputs as well. When the 800 is employed in systems that use other Meridian components (such as the 861 Reference Processor or the DSP loudspeakers), Meridian High Resolution (MHR) utilizes proprietary techniques that ensure the secure transfer of the highest possible sound quality between the systemís elements, lowering jitter and improving the sound quality of all pre-recorded material. The 800 Reference CD/DVD Player can also be configured as a stand-alone preamp. It has five additional digital inputs and a digital tape output, and provides Volume, Mute, and Phase functions. Any of the 800 Series input cards can be fitted, making an 800 the centerpiece of a superlative 2-channel A/V playback system when paired with two Meridian DSP speakers, or the on-board DSP can provide variable outputs to feed a power amplifier. Video Quality Digitally stored video pictures have high bandwidth, low noise, very low frame and line jitter and the potential for deeply saturated colors. However, recovering this quality requires a superb MPEG decoder and immaculate care in de-jittering and processing the resulting video. The 800ís standard output card contains a video encoder of the highest studio-grade quality. It provides NTSC and PAL. Its video conversion and amplification are the highest quality available. It also provides connection options for RGB, component, S-video and composite formats. Meridian has always championed audio systems in which the signal is kept in the digital domain form the source through Digital Surround Decoders to DSP Loudspeakers; the Meridian 800 Reference DVD Player follows that example by keeping the video information in the digital domain until the last minute. It employs a digital video backplane, leaving the option of adding more video processing capacity in the future. Flexibility Is The Key The 800 is Meridianís definitive statement on the current and future quality of the new DVD medium. The digital video circuits provide the highest quality picture in a variety of formats; the digital audio processing provides what Meridian says is the ultimate in resolution enhancement and low jitter. The 800 CD/DVD Player is the perfect front-end for the Meridian 861 Reference Surround Processor ñ although it can also be configured as a player and a two-channel preamplifier in its own right. The Meridian 800 is fully compatible with other Meridian 800 and 500 Series components; it comes with a DVD version of the Meridian System Remote, and operates as part of a Meridian Digital Theater. The price of the Meridian 800 Reference CD/DVD Player, like the Meridian 861 Reference Processor, is based on the specific card configuration the customer requires. Most configurations retail between $12,000 and $16,000. The 800 Reference CD/DVD Playerís ownerís manual can be downloaded from: www.meridian-audio.com/800User.pdf For more information, contact Bob Stuart at 011 44 1480 434334 / 52144 or e-mail jrs@meridian.win-uk.net jrs@meridian.co.com or Andrew Regan at 404 344 7111 or visit the Meridian Web site at meridian.co.com.