Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Thanks all (and a short review)

I went by Sound and Vision with my friend who was interested in purchasing a Meridian system. They have 6000's and 8000's on the floor, and we got to listen to them both. I'm very surprised that they couldn't demonstrate to us the DSP room correction, which is one of the primary reasons why one would buy such a system. The DSP6000 sounded quite bad, but the room was terrible, so I couldn't really judge the speaker with confidence. I feel a good speaker should sound good despite the room, and fantastic in a good room, but the 6000 sounded awful. It was the incorrect thing for them to do - to blame it on the room and then not show us the miraculous DSP correction claimed by Meridian. It's perhaps their most important technology and a big part of what you pay for in such a system. I'm curious why Meridian doesn't train dealers to do the correction properly... it would certainly help them sell more speakers. As of now, I still don't have personal empirical evidence that such room correction works.

The DSP8000 was quite impressive, but at $45K, it should be. The Revelators are fine woofers, but I wasn't very impressed by the tweeter (I'm used to Dynaudio Esotec in my own system). While technically fantastic speakers (clean, ample extreme low frequencies, excellent power handling, and good resolving power), the systems sound a tad cold and lifeless - as if they were going through all the motions, but lacking in enthusiasm. Neutral and powerful, but not extremely musical and also missing a little finesse. I would say that both the sound (and I guess their aesthetics too) are analagous to a contemporary work of art - not without meaning, but slightly dry and at times seeming a little forced. For 20-50K, I would expect more. However, they are certainly phenomenal home theater speakers and if I were building an HT system I would probably go for them.

Anyway, thanks for directing me to a showroom. I'm glad I've been able to learn a little more about this enigmatic brand.

-Chris


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  • Thanks all (and a short review) - csown 11:46:55 09/24/01 (0)


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