Quad DSP7200HC Special Edition (SE), DSP5200HC Special Edition (SE), DSP7200 Special Edition (SE), DSP5200 Special Edition (SE) data

Special Edition

DSP Digital Active Loudspeakers

Product highlights

The most revealing, lifelike and
powerful performance of any
Meridian loudspeakers to date

Now with Meridian’s revolutionary
MQA –delivering the sound of the
studio guaranteed

DSP5200SE, DSP7200SE
and DSP8000SE available
plus DSP5200HCSE,
DSP7200HCSE horizontal
centre-channel versions

From the very beginning, Meridian
loudspeakers have been Active – including
the amplifiers and line-level crossovers
inside the cabinet. But Meridian had taken
the leap into digital audio technology with
the introduction of the Compact Disc
several years earlier: it had been evident to
Meridian’s founders that an all-digital signal
path from the source to the loudspeaker
was the future.

Meridian has launched a new series of
Special Edition loudspeakers to celebrate
the 25th anniversary of the launch of our
pioneering D600 in 1989, the foundation
upon which today’s Meridian DSP Digital
Active Loudspeakers are built.

A DSP Loudspeaker includes the entire
system’s electronics inside the enclosure –
providing dramatically increased efficiency
and enabling them to deliver a level of
performance equivalent to a passive
design of eight times their physical volume.
The DSP approach also eliminates the
space, power, and thermal management
requirements for other individual system
components and, significantly, creates a
system in which the individual components
are all perfectly matched and sonically
balanced.

Special Edition DSP Digital Active
Loudspeakers from Meridian provide
the most revealing, lifelike and powerful
performance of any Meridian loudspeakers
to date. Developed from expertise honed
over more than 25 years of original research
and continual system development, SE
loudspeakers particularly benefit from
Meridian’s scientific research into how
humans perceive sound – ‘how we hear’
– in particular, focusing on how our brains
process sound. They fully support Meridian’s
revolutionary MQA process, bringing the true
sound of the studio to the listening room.

Meridian’s fundamental philosophy,
building on co-founder Bob Stuart’s unique
background, has always taken its cues from
neuroscience and psychoacoustics as the
starting points for audio system design,
placing Meridian in a unique position to
resolve the challenges of high-resolution and
high-performance audio reproduction.

Guided by original research, and always
striving to bring the subtle nuances of a
musical performance to the listener at
home, Meridian’s engineers have addressed
important new areas in developing these new
Special Edition loudspeakers.

With the new Special Edition loudspeakers,
Meridian delivers more accurate time-domain
response and offers significantly improved
transient handling across the entire digital
active system.

New Meridian-designed short­horn-loaded tweeter with a
Beryllium dome for outstanding
transient response and extended
frequency range

New mechanical clamp rings on
the mid-range and bass drivers
provide enhanced mechanical
stability and further minimise
coloration

New extended-bandwidth
analogue electronics, optimised
to deliver maximum performance
from high-resolution recordings

New DSP provides several
performance enhancements
including the latest implementation
of ‘EBA’ (Enhanced Bass
Alignment) technology (patent
applied for) to ensure accurate
time-domain response, providing
additional clarity and an open,
transparent sound-stage.

The Special Edition loudspeakers introduce
Meridian’s latest innovations in digital
loudspeaker system design, including a new
driver, new electronics and new firmware,
plus mechanical enhancements to deliver
the highest-performing Meridian DSP Digital
Active Loudspeakers available. The three
models feature the following performance­enhancing improvements, developed over
hundreds of hours of critical measurement
and listening.

Beryllium-dome tweeter

For the most natural sound a high-frequency
driver’s cone must have superior transient
handling for dynamic range and contrast.
It must also have extensive power handling
for wide dynamic range. A perfect material
for this is Beryllium – it is seven times
more rigid than, and over twice as fast as,
aluminium, the traditional tweeter cone
material. The new Beryllium-dome tweeter
uses a semi-horn-loaded approach and was
designed by Meridian engineers.

New SpeakerLink input board and DSP

A new SpeakerLink board provides
enhanced interoperability between Meridian
Controllers and DSP Loudspeakers. Digital
Signal Processing has been enhanced for
higher clock speeds, giving superb handling
of the high sample rates encountered with
high-resolution audio sources. The source
information that appears in the loudspeaker
display is now derived from the controller,
allowing for additional custom legending.
Meanwhile, additional enhancements

include Bass, Tilt, and Axis presets for
enhanced control and a new crossover
design. All SE centre channel products
include Centre Elevation – allowing the
image from a centre channel loudspeaker
positioned under a screen, for example, to
be raised to match the rest of the system,
and at a height for realistic dialogue delivery.

Enhanced Bass Alignment

Enhanced Bass Alignment (patent applied
for) provides accurate time-alignment of
all the drivers in the system, delivering
exceptional imaging and a clear, transparent
and more lifelike sound. In a loudspeaker,
unlike real life, lower frequencies are
progressively delayed compared with the
MF and HF range. Using a combination of
digital filters and time delays for the mid and
high frequencies, Meridian’s EBA allows
the upper bass, mid and high frequencies
to “wait” for the low frequencies, delivering
perfectly-timed music playback. This feature
requires a DSP loudspeaker design; it’s
impossible to achieve in any passive or
analogue-active loudspeaker design.

Wideband analogue electronics

Each individual amplifier within the Special
Edition enclosure has been refined to
provide a more lifelike sound, with optimised
transient response, extended frequency
response and enhanced dynamic range –
complementing the improvements in DSP
performance and delivering overall a more
authentic sound.

Special Edition

DSP Digital Active Loudspeakers

Clamp Rings minimise vibration

A great deal of effort has gone into ensuring
that Meridian DSP Loudspeaker enclosures
are rigid and free from resonances. The
addition of driver clamp rings ensures that
the driver is rigidly attached to the cabinet,
maximising authenticity and minimising
coloration. You hear the loudspeaker, not the
cabinet.

MQA –Master Quality Authenticated

Special Edition DSP Loudspeakers fully
support Meridian’s revolutionary MQA
process, which delivers the accurate
sound of the studio – guaranteed. When
fed from an MQA decoder (such as that
in the 800 Series Reference products),
the SE Loudspeaker ‘renders’ the audio
and displays the sample rate at which the
original master recording was captured.

Additional enhancements

The source information that appears in
the loudspeaker display is now derived
from the controller, allowing for additional
custom legending. Meanwhile, additional
enhancements include Bass, Tilt, and Axis
presets for enhanced control and a new
lowpass crossover design.

SE centre channel products include Centre
Elevation – allowing the image from a centre
channel loudspeaker positioned under a
screen, for example, to be raised to be in
line with main left and right loudspeakers
and at a suitable height for realistic dialogue
delivery.

Availability and colour options

The new SE loudspeakers are available
in addition to the current production
DSP8000, DSP7200 and DSP5200
speakers, in Piano Lacquer Black and High
Gloss White paint finishes as standard, as
well as the full set of custom finishes as part
of the Meridian Select programme.

Upgrade path

Upgrade paths are available for owners
of DSP7200 and DSP8000 DSP
Loudspeakers – including the Anniversary
Edition – and most models of DSP5200.
Contact a Meridian Retail Partner for full
details. The upgrades also include a full new
warranty for the entire loudspeaker system.

SEDSM • REƒ • V1.3 • 20141217www.meridian-audio.com