The goal was to create a cutting edge, pure digital system with a perfect balance of room design and equipment.
Every component in the ENTIRE system is fed clean, balanced power from a 240 volt 5000 Watt headroom Equitech with digital filters and dedicated circuits.
The room is accoustically treated with LBI boyd cinema panels in ultrasuede; absorbtive (Home Theatre & Meridian suggestion), with a diffuse back wall. The room sounds very good to begin with. Then the digital theatre was installed and optimised. Once it sounded the best it could, with optimum speaker placement conducted over 5 months, then the entire system was eq'd with Meridian's room correction performed in the digital domain.
All sources are connected via DVI and Meridian High Resolution digital connections where possible and upsampled to 24 bit 96 khz, even with 5.1 sources and benefit from EQ. No analog connections.
The Marantz VP12 S3 DLP projector is considered to be the reference single chip DLP. It is the latest with the HD2+ chip. It was painstakingly callibrated by Glen Zink over a 3 day period using Colorfacts and other measurement devices. Contrast ratio is around 3400:1 with amazing blacks and the most accurate color reproduction I have seen; CRT's included. Screen is Studiotek 130 for accurate white balance to preserve color accuracy. All sources fed via DVI where possible or component at a bare minimum. No s-video or composite.
System overview:
Accousticall treated room.
Clean custom and Van den Hul cables.
All electronics on dedicated, balanced, filtered supply.
All sources benefit from Meridian room correction.
All sources upsampled by Meridian to 24 bit 96 khz.
All sources carried via MHR throughout digital system.
HD satellite is 720P native via DVI and 5.1 upsampled to 24/96khz via MHR and eq'd in the digital domain.
DVD is 720P out via DVI and 5.1 upsampled to 24/96khz via MHR and eq'd in the digital domain.
Total number of 8" woofers in Meridian digital Theatre array: 14.
Each and every driver in the Meridian system is powered by its own Class A monoblock amplifier fed by a dedicated 24/96 khz D/A converter.
The overall result is astonishing. The system is so clean, fast and transparent with devastating, tight bass. Sounds come from beyond the wall boundries from darkness. Ground floor noise is so low it is remarkable. The imaging is rock solid and palpable and the system is very musical.
No upgrades in sight except for the new Voom PVR box if it becomes available. For this room, there are no upgrades necessary. 800 series equipment is a negligable improvement if at all sonically and the SXRD Qualia has higher resolution but not as good a contrast ratio, so as it stands, I don't know if it would be an improvement. Speakers are more then enough and have been tamed for this size room, so they would be reference level in an even larger room.
Complete custom room treatment. 6 lbs density Absorptive room with diffuse back wall. Cognac ultrasuede, accoustically transparent fabric.
Azis Custom 19
Flush mounted, custom 19
Equitech 5 R Q Reference Standard System
2 X dedicated 20 amp circuit, 1 X 10 amp Digital filter circuit, balanced power with complete filtration and protection. 5000 watt clearance for high power amplifier conditioning.
Meridian G68 ADV
Surround processor: 24/96 khz upsampling with DTS/ES/EX, Dolby Digital EX, THX Ultra II, MLP, MPEG, Ambisonics, Trifield, video switching, digital room correction.
Meridian G91
DVD Player with scaled 720P via HDMI, uncompressed 24/96khz out via MHR.
Meridian DSP-8000
Meridian Reference Digital Full Range speakers. 12 X 8
Meridian DSP-5500c
Center Channel
Meridian DSP 33
Digital Active surround speakers. 24/96 khz.
Sony CDP-CX90es
200 Disc ES changer. Transport function via optical digital out.
Marantz VP12 S3 DLP
HD2+ at 720 P. Fed entirely by DVI 720 P. Callibrated by Glenn Zink with Colorfacts. 3400:1 contrast ratio.
Stewart Studiotek 130 HD Deluxe
16 X 9 AR 1.3 Gain fixed Deluxe. 1.3 Gain for accurate color Balance.
Gefen Extend it 4 X 1 DVI switcher.
HDCP compliant 4 X DVI switcher with discrete codes.
Voom STB
HDTV satellite Set top box. 40 channels of High Definition including ALL Local digital broadcasts.
JVC HM-DH30000
D Theatre D-VHS 480-1080P High Defenition video playback deck.
Microsoft X Box
Game console
Furman PL- Plus
Power Conditioner and Light Module
Van Den Hul Digital Interconnects.
Partial Silver
Tekline Custom Power Cables
High quality, thick gauge custom power cords with Hospital grade connectors.
Better Cables HDMI to DVI
Superior quality HDMI to DVI cable.
Lutron Grafik Eye 4000
Programmed lighting control via IR
Marantz 9200 C
Color touchscreen RF universal remote with RF/ir repeaters and blaster. Fully programmed with discrete codes and discrete, tested macros.
Nortel Venture
Complete whole house 3 line telephone system with intercom, whole house hands free paging, call transferring, monitoring and confrence quality duplex speakerphone with noise reduction technology.
ADT Whole house security system
Fire and burglar monitoring system with back up and redundancy system.
German Shepherd Stella, beige & tan.
127 lbs K9 razor-blade shredding device. Female: VERY protective and VERY territorial. Cave Canem!
Hi, I am inquiring about Equitech and how they went about doin g your dedicated power system. I am interested in a 240 volt system but have never heard of Equitech. What kind of price am I looking to pay for such a system?
Studiotek is accurate. The greyhawk affects true white balance. The Ruby is also perfect as far as picture goes with a 14,000:1 contrast ratio, so no need to artificially enhance it by darkening the screen. Studiotek 130 is the reference in my opinion.
Sorry for the delay in responding. i rarely check in. The 5200's sound better then 8000's in my room now for a couple of reasons. First is because I'm using 800 series and 861 v4. However, the main reason I believe is because I now have 5 full range 5200's over the 8000 w 5500 hc and dsp33's rear. I use the 5200hc. The bass with all five full range speakers is phenomenal. The extra bass cancels the room overhang and everything is very tight now. Clarity is on par with 8000's, so no real difference there in my opinion.
Your system is quite amazing. I'm glad to hear you love your DSP5200s, I'm in a middle of purchasing a pair myself.
Have you tried running the DSP8000s as the front speakers and thre DSP5200s for center and surround? Do the DSP5200s really sound better than the DSP8000s? Also, are you using the DSP5200C for the center channel, or are you using a regular tower DSP5200 for that as well?
Sorry for all the questions, but I'm curious as I'm also jumping into the Meridian's line of products. Thanks, and enjoy your theater!
Made some changes. Changed ALL speakers to full range 5200's and LOVE the sound now. They fit my room much better then the 8000's did. They just sound better. With full range accross the board; sound is just phenomenal; tight, heavy bass. Changed processor and DVD player to meridian Reference Series 861 v4 and 800 V4. Incredible.
Sorry for the slightly delayed response:-)....70's movies play beautifully from a good DVD transfer and then there is high def which is stunning; even for those oldies.
Great systemn and I'm jealous. One of the things I've noticed when I go into home theater stores is how they always have a very high contrast movie playing like a digital Finding Nemo or Shrek. I would be curious how your digital set-up copes with 70's mush like a Mean Streets or Five Easy Pieces? The Meridian I'm sure can handle it, but how does the projector output the image? Looks like a comfortable couch. Can I come over wth my six Netflix package and hang out?
Congratulation beautiful set up,I agree no much to improve Could you tell me why you choose studioteck 130 istead of fire hawk? the gain is similar 1,3 versus1,35 I thougth that firehawk was for single chip dlp as well as excellent too with ambient ligth,we cann,t always control the ligth. thanks
Thank you for the responses. I was reluctant to post pictures as it might appear to be showing off, however, I am very proud of it and love the design and feel of it as do all visitors, so I wanted to share it so it can serve as a resource to anyone about to design a room. I had Revel Salons, voice, embrace and B15 powered by Mark Levinson and Bryston 7B SSt's and 4BSSt's, Lexicon MC12B processor but eventually switched to an all inclusive system. I absolutely love the way it all works together; switch it on and the entire system cleanly comes alive. It is very involving and quite complex to set up, but I like to be very hands on with my equipment (no pun intended) so I don't like to rely on a dealer for set up. I now know the ins and outs of the system even down to adjusting decay times in the EQ room correction. The speakers did require software updating via RS232 and initial set up, but it all went quite smoothly. The sound is amazing. I have heard the Levinson 40 in my older system and I have to say, Meridian is even cleaner and faster then that all Levinson Revel set up. Sounds come out from beyond the boundry of the wall, out of darkness and pan very clean and smoothly without being localised by the equipment. Bass is darn right frightening. It goes very low and is tight and powerful, but very detailed since the room correction really cleans it up. One other system that ranks up here (maybe better), but in my opinion; also because of a larger room, which improves the sound, is a Levinson 40, 20 X Mark Levinson amps driving a custom CAT system with external crossovers and independant drivers. It is Meridian style in concept; with individual amps for individual drivers. That system sounded better in part because of a beautifully laid out large, accoustically treated room. My dream finally came to fruition and it is amazing.
Wow, it's evident you put some thought into this room. I'm guessing a full blown meridian system didn't come cheap. Did you have the dealer set it up for you, or did you do it yourself? I know some of the setup techniques for the speakers require a laptop computer. I'm sure it sounds even better than it looks in the pics...
