Meridian Speaker User Manual

The Meridian Papers - 1
Meridian Audio has taken an almost
unique course in the design of its hi-fi
systems, and particularly in its
loudspeaker design, where the signal
remains in the digital domain until the
very last moment, and the loudspeakers
include digital crossovers and signal
processing.
In the first of a series of articles on
Meridian audio products and technology,
Richard Elen looks at the company's DSP
loudspeaker philosophy.
Meridian's top-of-the-line DSP8000 speakers,
the essence of high performance
Fig. 1: The conventional arrangement of a sin-
gle power amplifier driving a two-way loud-
speaker system with a passive crossover.
Meridian Loudspeakers: The DSP Path
In each article in this series, we will be
looking at a different aspect of the hi-fi
signal chain – from source to speaker. In
view of its importance in the overall
reproduction of the sound, we are first
going to consider what happens at the
end of the line – the amplification sys-
tem and the loudspeakers themselves,
for it is here that Meridian has very
much charted its own course among
consumer audio manufacturers, coming
up with a solution that is both elegant,
efficient and capable of extremely high
audio quality.
CABLES
EXTERNAL
POWER AMPLIFIER
The traditional approach
The traditional method of designing a
hi-fi system has been with us for a long
time, and has hardly changed over the
years. Signal from a source – such as a
CD player – is fed into a preamplifier or
controller, and from there at line level to
an amplifier.
From this central cluster of equipment,
the now high-level signal is fed via
extensive cables to the loudspeakers
themselves.
PASSIVE CROSSOVER
LOUDSPEAKER
ENCLOSURE
HF DRIVER
LF DRIVER