Meridian Audio expanded its DSP7200 series of active DSP speakers with a horizontal center channel, the $17,995-suggested DSP7200HC.
The speaker, which just began shipping, complements the DSP7200 left-right speakers, which shipped early this year and retail for a suggested $34,995/pair. All are the first Meridian DSP speakers to feature Speakerlink connectivity to simplify connections.
The speakers incorporate multiple amplifiers, each amplifier dedicated to a particular driver. Each speaker also features digital crossovers and digital signal processing, which converts 96kHz 24-bit PCM bitstream audio from a Meridian preamplifier, CD or DVD player, or A/V system-controller into an analog signal to drive the amplifiers.
Bitstream audio and control signals, including RS-232 control signals for connection to home-control systems, are delivered to each speaker from a Meridian audio component via a single CAT5e, RJ-45-terminated cable. The Speakerlink connection technology eliminates cable clutter and signal losses and coloration induced by analog signals riding on a cable, the company said. With Speakerlink, Meridian DSP speakers for the first time can be daisychained to avoid home-running cable from each speaker to a Meridian audio component.
In the DSP7200 series, Meridian extensively redesigned internal electronics, wrote new software and upgraded the transducers and power amplifiers over their predecessors to bring performance “dramatically close” to the performance of the flagship DSP8000 speakers.
The speakers use a “sandwich” of woods and metal, formed in curved pressure-laminated panels, to yield “almost perfectly vibration- and resonance-free enclosures,” the company noted.
They’re available in gloss piano-black lacquer, silver lacquer and special-order custom colors.