Meridian Audio Speaker manual The Meridian Papers, Meridian Loudspeakers The DSP Path, page

The Meridian Papers - 1 Meridian Loudspeakers: The DSP Path page 9

If you remove, or disconnect, the “head”, you can hear very little definition. Psychoacoustically we are at our best listening in small spaces, to loudspeakers that have similar physical characteristics to a speaking human being.

Our loudspeakers are essentially “human-sized” because psychoacoustic research indicates that humans are most highly developed to appreciate this size of sound-producing system, and they will thus sound the most natural.

As much effort goes into cabinet design as into the electronics within, and the keynote here is extremely high integrity. Cabinets are heavy and rigid, allowing no inadvertent movement. Typically, they incorporate multiple layers of wood and metal, bonded together for maxi- mum damping.

The DSP6000 and DSP8000, for exam- ple, include side-firing woofers that are horizontally opposed, so that the net movement is zero. Advanced materials ensure that the cabinet is so dead that movement stops at once when excita- tion ceases, with no ringing.

Meridian DSP loudspeakers are perhaps best thought of as musical instruments. The most difficult sounds to reproduce are those of individual instruments, such as piano or flute, and small ensembles that are on the same kind of scale as the listening room.

If you were to record a live string quar- tet in your listening environment, the most difficult test of a “high fidelity” system would be to replay that experi- ence in the same room. Meridian DSP loudspeakers rise to that challenge.