Hi,
Together with Guy (General Skanky) & his wife Lou, I recently attended a demo at PJ HiFi in Guilford of the Meridian G68 processor and the Arcam AV8 (which I already own) playing via an Arcam DV27. The speakers concerned where a full set of Genelec actives and Genelec Subs, which I believe were at Event 2.
The demo was hosted by Elliot (X3ELS) who deserves a big thanks for giving up a considerable amount of both his working day and his free time. It was good to put faces to people who you've conversed with on the forums and also to share the enthusiasm of AV (Elliot has that in spades as well as huge knowledge)
All the kit had been previously calibrated and I must say that the room looked really good, the projector used is a huge step up form the plasma that I currently own.
As I already own an AV8 I was interested in 3 issues;
1) How would it sound in a proper H/C
2) How would it sound with top class active speakers (I currently have a Kef Ref 203/202/201, Paradigm servo set-up)
3) How would it compare against another high end processor
There was a 4th motive and that was to see and hear the new Meridian G series in the flesh, to my mind this is the sexist bit of kit on the market. Obviously we don't necessarily buy the kit for what it looks like, more for what it sounds like, but I was hoping that the Meridian, which has the former, would have the latter.
Although I have auditioned various bits of AV in the past, I have never really had the opportunity to demo things back to back and quite often I've come out of a demo wondering if what I perceive as good or bad about a piece of equipment is purely down to my pre-conceptions/lack of true memory recall/different demo rooms or a combination of all 3. I was hoping that this mini Event would enable me to not only get the answers to my original 3 issues of the AV8 but also stand me in good stead for any future demo's. I was also hoping that we would be able to do some truly blind demo's with no influences colouring me judgement, whether conscious or sub-conscious.
The Meridian was the first that we auditioned and this was awesome, superb front stage and sharp surround effects. The DTS demo of Spiderman where the little boy has awoken for the first time after losing his sight really put you in his shoes. What really was outstanding was how strong the bass was, whether this was a combination of the Meridian or the awesome output of the Genelec subs was difficult to say, but suffice to say that is wasn't about audio it was about feel, in your legs and backside !!! The demo of vertical limit was very impressive, you could hear the whoosh of the ice picks as they were swung through the air and the crunch of the compacted snow as they buried themselves into the mountainside. I looked to my left and Guy had a massive smile on his face, he obviously enjoyed what he had just heard. I myself was pretty astounded at what the Meridian had just delivered in conjunction with the Genelecs, no cinema that I had been in could have delivered that impact, yes a cinema would probably have been louder but the sound would have been harsh and to my mind intolerable¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡Khow H/C has come on in the last 4 years
After a slight pause to chat about what we had just heard, Elliot connected up the Arcam and played the same demo's. Again there were incredible sound effects, with superb front stage and great steering of the surrounds and masses of thumping, exhilarating low frequency sound. When the demo's had finished Guy, Lou and myself started chatting about the Arcam, it seemed to all 3 of us that there was something missing, we all agreed that it seemed to be the bass that was missing. Guy thought that the Meridian had better surround effects, whereas I thought that the Arcam was stronger in that area but weaker in the front stage. Having said that if this was a scale of 1 to 100 and the Meridian was 100, the Arcam would have been at 92 (arbitrary number ). I only wish I could get near to these volumes in my house, I can't because of neighbours or the wife ¼
We chatted this through for a while amongst ourselves without any real conclusion as to why the differences, although I think Elliot wasn't convinced as we were about the differences we believed that we had heard. So now we came to the exciting part of doing the demo's, the blind testing.
I'll keep this bit short as all the other observations that I made earlier, hold true here, only we didn't know what bit of equipment we were hearing. After hearing the 2 played through again I was stunned to find that I could not tell the difference between the 2, I made a guess (and it was a guess) and got it wrong. At first I thought that Elliot was playing a trick on us and had played only 1 processor, I put this to him and he admitted that it had crossed his mind but time didn't permit doing this (such a sadist). Guy, Lou and I talked this through and as Guy has mentioned he and I couldn't split these 2 apart.
I suppose it all comes down to either individual listening conditions or personal preferences when it comes to choosing kit at this elevated level. I, from a personal point of view, will not be buying any high-end kit without doing a back to back blind test. Whether you mean to or not, preconceptions enter the decision making process, from my point of view I love the looks of the Meridian and also the price premium of it over the Arcam puts it, rightly or wrongly in my view at a higher echelon.
So I came away glad that the Arcam I already owned had held its own against a much more expensive processor and the performance of the Genelecs had lived up to my expectations but most importantly the day had taught me the important lesson of blind back to back demo's. If it's VFM then the Arcam wins, from my point of view if I had the money I would buy the Meridian for its combination of looks and performance, in fact if you buy either of these you won't be disappointed.
Once again thanks to Elliot for arranging this and thanks to Guy for letting me gatecrash.
Hopefully General Skanky will come along and post his comments
Regards
John
Equipment:
Source ¡V Arcam DV27A
Processors ¡V Meridian G68
Arcam AV8
Speakers ¡V Genelec Actives (not certain of the models, X3ELS can fill us in)
Demo discs -
Vertical Limit
DTS Demo disc -
1. Lord of the Rings
2. Daredevil
Together with Guy (General Skanky) & his wife Lou, I recently attended a demo at PJ HiFi in Guilford of the Meridian G68 processor and the Arcam AV8 (which I already own) playing via an Arcam DV27. The speakers concerned where a full set of Genelec actives and Genelec Subs, which I believe were at Event 2.
The demo was hosted by Elliot (X3ELS) who deserves a big thanks for giving up a considerable amount of both his working day and his free time. It was good to put faces to people who you've conversed with on the forums and also to share the enthusiasm of AV (Elliot has that in spades as well as huge knowledge)
All the kit had been previously calibrated and I must say that the room looked really good, the projector used is a huge step up form the plasma that I currently own.
As I already own an AV8 I was interested in 3 issues;
1) How would it sound in a proper H/C
2) How would it sound with top class active speakers (I currently have a Kef Ref 203/202/201, Paradigm servo set-up)
3) How would it compare against another high end processor
There was a 4th motive and that was to see and hear the new Meridian G series in the flesh, to my mind this is the sexist bit of kit on the market. Obviously we don't necessarily buy the kit for what it looks like, more for what it sounds like, but I was hoping that the Meridian, which has the former, would have the latter.
Although I have auditioned various bits of AV in the past, I have never really had the opportunity to demo things back to back and quite often I've come out of a demo wondering if what I perceive as good or bad about a piece of equipment is purely down to my pre-conceptions/lack of true memory recall/different demo rooms or a combination of all 3. I was hoping that this mini Event would enable me to not only get the answers to my original 3 issues of the AV8 but also stand me in good stead for any future demo's. I was also hoping that we would be able to do some truly blind demo's with no influences colouring me judgement, whether conscious or sub-conscious.
The Meridian was the first that we auditioned and this was awesome, superb front stage and sharp surround effects. The DTS demo of Spiderman where the little boy has awoken for the first time after losing his sight really put you in his shoes. What really was outstanding was how strong the bass was, whether this was a combination of the Meridian or the awesome output of the Genelec subs was difficult to say, but suffice to say that is wasn't about audio it was about feel, in your legs and backside !!! The demo of vertical limit was very impressive, you could hear the whoosh of the ice picks as they were swung through the air and the crunch of the compacted snow as they buried themselves into the mountainside. I looked to my left and Guy had a massive smile on his face, he obviously enjoyed what he had just heard. I myself was pretty astounded at what the Meridian had just delivered in conjunction with the Genelecs, no cinema that I had been in could have delivered that impact, yes a cinema would probably have been louder but the sound would have been harsh and to my mind intolerable¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡Khow H/C has come on in the last 4 years
After a slight pause to chat about what we had just heard, Elliot connected up the Arcam and played the same demo's. Again there were incredible sound effects, with superb front stage and great steering of the surrounds and masses of thumping, exhilarating low frequency sound. When the demo's had finished Guy, Lou and myself started chatting about the Arcam, it seemed to all 3 of us that there was something missing, we all agreed that it seemed to be the bass that was missing. Guy thought that the Meridian had better surround effects, whereas I thought that the Arcam was stronger in that area but weaker in the front stage. Having said that if this was a scale of 1 to 100 and the Meridian was 100, the Arcam would have been at 92 (arbitrary number ). I only wish I could get near to these volumes in my house, I can't because of neighbours or the wife ¼
We chatted this through for a while amongst ourselves without any real conclusion as to why the differences, although I think Elliot wasn't convinced as we were about the differences we believed that we had heard. So now we came to the exciting part of doing the demo's, the blind testing.
I'll keep this bit short as all the other observations that I made earlier, hold true here, only we didn't know what bit of equipment we were hearing. After hearing the 2 played through again I was stunned to find that I could not tell the difference between the 2, I made a guess (and it was a guess) and got it wrong. At first I thought that Elliot was playing a trick on us and had played only 1 processor, I put this to him and he admitted that it had crossed his mind but time didn't permit doing this (such a sadist). Guy, Lou and I talked this through and as Guy has mentioned he and I couldn't split these 2 apart.
I suppose it all comes down to either individual listening conditions or personal preferences when it comes to choosing kit at this elevated level. I, from a personal point of view, will not be buying any high-end kit without doing a back to back blind test. Whether you mean to or not, preconceptions enter the decision making process, from my point of view I love the looks of the Meridian and also the price premium of it over the Arcam puts it, rightly or wrongly in my view at a higher echelon.
So I came away glad that the Arcam I already owned had held its own against a much more expensive processor and the performance of the Genelecs had lived up to my expectations but most importantly the day had taught me the important lesson of blind back to back demo's. If it's VFM then the Arcam wins, from my point of view if I had the money I would buy the Meridian for its combination of looks and performance, in fact if you buy either of these you won't be disappointed.
Once again thanks to Elliot for arranging this and thanks to Guy for letting me gatecrash.
Hopefully General Skanky will come along and post his comments
Regards
John
Equipment:
Source ¡V Arcam DV27A
Processors ¡V Meridian G68
Arcam AV8
Speakers ¡V Genelec Actives (not certain of the models, X3ELS can fill us in)
Demo discs -
Vertical Limit
DTS Demo disc -
1. Lord of the Rings
2. Daredevil
