Meridian 800, 861 Update Manual

800/861

Version 3

800 Series DVD-Audio Update

Sales Information

January 2002

800 Features

•

DVD-Audio from the inventors of

MLP

•

Movies in 96kHz/24-bit resolution

•

Ultimate sound and picture quality

•

Encrypted digital output

•

MHR Smart Link

•

Enhanced CD playback

Background

Meridian’s 800 Series has firmly established the ultimate benchmark for performance and architecture of top-class surround AV systems. The 800 CD/DVD Player and 861 Reference Surround Controller have both received numerous major industry awards for aspects of their performance: for surround sound, for stereo, as preamplifiers and as world-class CD and DVD players.

Important features of the 800 Series are modular hardware, card-based electronics and a basis of updateable software for all aspects of operation and signal-processing. Meridian has pioneered this approach in the 800 Series to allow owners to upgrade as technology and formats evolve. Over the three years since their debut, the 800 Series has been continually improved, maintaining its industry-leading position for sound and picture quality, features and facilities. All these improvements have been made available to existing owners.

Meridian is proud to announce Version 3, a significantly advanced version of both 800 and

861. As before, existing owners can upgrade.

800 Series Version 3

Although presaged by the exciting addition of DVD-Audio, Version 3 significantly raises the performance of the 800 Series in nearly every area. Both products receive new, more powerful DSP engines to enable ultra-high precision processing on up to 8 channels running at 96kHz. This additional computing power is used to add facilities, extreme transparency and exciting new sound-field options for all media.

In a revolutionary change to the playback system architecture, the Meridian 800 now provides high-resolution multichannel outputs and a unique way of presenting movie sound.

MHR Smart Link

MHR Smart Link is a proprietary digital multichannel connection that allows the 800 Player to feed high-resolution audio directly to the 861 Reference Surround Controller or to Meridian’s DSP loudspeakers. The MHR Smart Link uses proprietary encryption and signaling technology; the first digital connection to be officially sanctioned for DVD-Audio content.

To obtain the most transparent sound Meridian’s link also features unique low-jitter technology. 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 a player to a surround controller and on to the loudspeakers.

861 Features

•

New powerful DSP engine for high

resolution audio

•

Full support for DVD-Audio

•

Automatic mode and speaker

management

•

Unified bass management for all

formats

•

Up to 10 outputs at 96kHz/24bit

•

Updated I/O options including:

•

192kHz/24bit analogue output

•

96kHz/24bit multichannel

analogue input

•

Discrete digital multichannel

input

Meridian Audio Limited

Stonehill, Stukeley Meadows Huntingdon Cambridgeshire PE29 6EX

T +44 (0) 1480 445678 F +44 (0) 1480 445686

Meridian America Inc.

Suite 122, Building 2400 3800 Camp Creek Parkway Atlanta GA 30331

T (404) 344 7111 F (404) 346 7111

www.meridian-audio.com

800/861

Working together

The MHR Smart Link has profound ramifications for the system. By passing the signals at full resolution between 800 and 861, the system can provide perfect and unified bass management for all sources where it belongs – in the surround controller.

861 receives the full bandwidth and resolution of the original recording allowing it to offer the highest possible sound quality on both its exquisite studio-grade analogue outputs (for conventional, analogue-domain amplifiers and speakers), or on individual MHR-capable digital outputs (for the multiple DSP speakers of a Meridian Digital Theater).

The MHR Smart Link also passes information about the disc content, whether it be high resolution multichannel or stereo from DVD-Audio, CD, Dolby Digital or DTS on a movie or PCM from a music video.

This means that with no intervention from the user, the 861 can automatically select the optimum DSP modes and speaker settings for movies, for music, for stereo and multichannel sources – a welcome feature at a time when the ever-expanding offerings of source formats holds the potential for considerable confusion.

Multichannel system architecture

Meridian’s 800 Series now has comprehensive DVD-Audio capability with full multichannel support for high resolution sources throughout the entire system.

Meridian have re-defined optimum movie playback in this latest series. 800 now has the option to decode movies inside the player, and there are a number of benefits to this approach. By taking the Dolby Digital decoding task from the 861, it is freed up to apply its considerable signal processing power to optimize resolution – typically working at 48-bit internal precision. Meanwhile the extensive DSP power in 800 is used to provide upsampling and resolution enhancement for all sources including CD and DVD-Video. Until you have experienced movies in 96kHz/24-bit resolution you might find it hard to anticipate this huge improvement to movie sound. Important low-level details and a much clearer sense of space bring intimacy to Dolby Digital sound tracks. A lasting impression of this new 800 Series is greater and more natural dynamic contrasts.

The 800 Player can optionally upscale the audio from any disc (including DVD-Audio) and send it, via MHR Smart 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.

DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio offers up to 6 channels of 96kHz/24-bit audio direct from the recording studio, using the disc’s large capacity to deliver vivid, life-like surround recordings. DVD-Audio also offers the same ultra-high quality in stereo and many discs provide additional content, such as menus, pictures and video clips.

Meridian was an important contributor to the DVD-Audio standard, which mandates MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) as the format for the highest quality sound. We are in a unique position to understand all the nuances of this exciting new format.

Without question, DVD-Audio offers the highest sound quality option for music in the home and the 800 gives simple access to all the content. In the 800 we have control over all aspects of the playback process and have developed a user-friendly interface for all media – including DVD-Audio – as well as providing the highest possible sound and picture quality.

Now, with the 800 Series, we offer a playback system where the original audio can be passed without degradation all the way from the recording studio to the loudspeaker.

High resolution multichannel pushes the boundaries of technology, and we are proud of our achievement in the 800 Series: the sound is exquisite.