Meridian DSP5200SE Digital Active Loudspeakers
The smallest of Meridian’s Special Edition range of enhanced DSP Loudspeakers, the DSP5200SE is under a metre high, but delivers exceptional performance. Here is where the Meridian DSP Loudspeaker philosophy really comes into its own, delivering simply stunning bass and full-range performance from a relatively small cabinet.
2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of Meridian’s first digital loudspeaker – in fact the first digital loudspeaker in the world – the D600 in 1989.
The Special Edition DSP Loudspeaker Range is the result of Meridian’s ongoing research into how we, as humans, “hear” sound. These findings dictated improvements that have led to the loudspeaker’s lifelike performance. Quite simply, the Special Edition DSP Loudspeakers, and matching centre channels, are the best sounding loudspeakers Meridian has ever created.
A VERY SPECIAL OCCASION
Finished as standard in a piano lacquer black or white, the Special Edition Range is also available in any of the 270 Meridian Select colours.
MASTER QUALITY AUTHENTICATED (MQA)
Sourced from the original studio master recording as approved by the creative team, MQA combines an advanced new digital sampling technology that captures extremely high frequency timing and detail in an audio signal with an equally novel system to “encapsulate” that data into a form for delivery using any lossless file format or streaming. The listener’s decoder reconstructs the entire original signal, bringing up an indicator confirming that what they are hearing is exactly the same as the original master. Without the decoder, the listener enjoys CD quality reproduction. Its most advanced form, “MQA Studio”, uses the technology in the studio to generate an even higher quality master recording as the source.
FLEXIBLE THINKING
Adopting the same cabinet design and technology principles as the flagship DSP8000, the compact DSP5200.2 stays under one metre tall, yet ingeniously houses three custom drivers, three amplifiers, and advanced sound-shaping DSP computers in each cabinet. Featuring SpeakerLink technology, the DSP5200.2 provides high performance with a simple, unobtrusive, and easy to connect Ethernet style cable, providing click and play simplicity of installation. From smaller rooms to more spacious environments, the DSP5200.2 fits in perfectly and is state-of-the-art speaker design, and the sound is, quite simply, remarkable.
Speaker link
Traditional audio systems often require large, expensive cables to maintain their performance. Meridian's SpeakerLink uses an “Ethernet style” cable that delivers pristine digital sound and control down a single cable between Meridian components. The result is simple, unobtrusive, and cost-effective cables that are easy to install.
TRIPLE FIFO BUFFERING
Each sample of a digital recording must remain evenly spaced in time. Unfortunately, timing can vary, especially when reading discs. This is “jitter”, degrading music's sense of space and diminishing realism. Meridian's multiple “First In, First Out” buffering system minimises jitter, ensuring perfect timing and improved clarity. You enjoy a clearer feeling of the instruments and their interrelationship.
MERIDIAN HIGH RESOLUTION (MHR)
MHR was the first approved encryption method for transferring high definition digital audio between components. Previously, it had to be in the analogue domain, reducing quality. MHR allows secure movement of high resolution digital audio within a Meridian system, without compromise, improving quality by reducing cyclic repetition.
MERIDIAN APODISING FILTER
Filters are critical in digital audio. Commonly they introduce distortion and harshness because of "pre-ringing". Early digital recordings suffer from harshness too, due to primitive filters. After painstaking research, Meridian developed a special filter that avoids pre-ringing, so it can be steeper, cleaning up the effects of early filters. The result: a better, cleaner sound from recordings old and new.
ENHANCED BASS ALIGNMENT (EBA)
High or low, all sounds travel at the same speed, so all the sounds from a live musical event arrive at your ear at the same time, whatever frequencies they contain. Loudspeakers, however, have a problem when playing low frequency sounds at the same time as mid and high frequencies – the bass arrives late, and the deeper the sound, the later it arrives. This delayed bass causes music to lose its impact and reduces the sense of the recorded space – it is often described as “boomy”.
The goal is to have time-accurate loudspeakers, where all reproduced frequencies start and end at the same time. In a loudspeaker, this timing is affected by the crossover, driver, and enclosure type. To eliminate the delay between low, and mid and high frequencies, Meridian has designed a combination of digital filters and time delays for the mid and high frequencies. This solution enables the mid and high frequencies to “wait” for the low frequencies, delivering perfectly-timed music playback.
Mid and high frequencies are delayed to time-align them, while upper bass is delayed with a special type of patented filter. These features must be implemented entirely in the digital domain, making them impossible to achieve in any passive or analogue-active loudspeaker design.
Enhanced Bass Alignment provides accurate time-alignment of the drivers in the system, delivering exceptional imaging and a clear, transparent, more life like sound.
