r\li-J!voij_l(-i! T!JUJJ$: :ilirli -i yJSiSi' Si{)U -EEZE-BOJ( ER2006 $uri-hre;rJan€J'$ ^'bJ I IJJ-f*9\9J | { +;tr. -L-lf-l\9 ts,'JEJ€|3 Prear c TETKtllI.nl5I nrnvt* lVleridian's iJ-93 sij]ljVlj talks about lri-rez digital and rnrhy a forrnat urar is the last thing the industry needs ffi HSI.E Cary's ultirnate tutre pqdarnp Affordable po\ /er: Portal's Palaclin arnp Ra)z Sarnuels headpKone arTlp English po\rver frorn Rega French po\ /er frorn Atoll lVlondo WIEIL rnonokrlock j-Jts-:\;ljlY€);l_r\J -FJJSJ-FJ-!V;\ Y=J: LAf,IIM'\RIC F[l.M ECGME$AG[' MERIDIAN THEREARE MANY COTORFUL characters, many high-profilemovers 1994,with DVD-Mcleo on the honzon, Stuartchaired a pressure and shakers,in high-end audio,but there are only a few whosc group,the Aconsncl{cnaissance for Audio (A1{A),whch aimed influence extends far beyond the promotion of their own to make surcthat dre film industn'anclthe electronicscompanies brands.Onc of this exaltedand mighw hatidftil is Robert Sruart, Jidn'tforgcr el'.,ut qualiryin rhcirrush to ofGr l ncw-video "Lrdio chairmanand tccluical director of thc UK's Meridian Audio. fonnat. Thcsc effbrts were rewarclctlbv the inclusionof the wvo- Sofupoken,with a disarming snrile and a puckish senseof chamel, higlr-rcsolution,24-bir/96kHz audio option in the humor,Bob Sruarthas been at the heirn of Mcndiur eversince he DVD-Mdeo stand'rrd,which madc posstblethe DVD-Audio disc. and the outstandingindustrial designcr Allcn Bootluoyd cofound- Meridian wasdrc otily UK cornpan- to bc'comea mernberof dre ed thc companyas Boothroyd-Sutrt h 1977.and in the last 15 I)\D Forum, thc body that detemrne.l rhc DVD specifcation.In yearshas quietly taken on a much largerrole in the industry.In s4rat he calls"thc losslcsssummer" of 1998,Stuart and his team v,rlffi.Ste reop h i le.com, September 2006 57 THEPRIME MERIDIAN showed the DVD Forum music and the noise floor of the recordingvenue, then the hiss how Meridian Lossless of conectly done 16-bit audio is around the room-noiselevel- Packing could make multi- sometimesiCs above it, and thaCsa problem. Bttt 44.lkHz, charnel 24/ 96 audio posi- there's no doubt that that was a bit mean at the top end, and on ble, and MLP was adopted certain instn:mene, violins and so on, you can hear that-just a as Dart of the DVD-Audio little edgesometimes, which comesftom that samplerate. 'We standard. And after this, make it a lot better in our player becausewe say,"Well, Stuart became deeplv okay, there's nothing we can do about the way the recording involved in the process-of was made,but we don't have to compound the error by using formulacing the require- more and more and more filters at this soeed."So in the 808 menb for a new high-reso- we upsamplein resolution terms so the player is in fact play- lution video carrier ing back at l76kHz/24- Meanwhile, back home bit. And that givesa much in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshirq the opanding Meridian had smoother sound than already outgrown its new factory whidr had been ceremonially playing back at 44.1kH2. openedby then-Prime MinisterJohn Major in 1996.ht2004, If the recording's well the company acquired its presen! very large and impressive, done, it's okay. headquartersand factory building which bad been built for the More bits would be Meridian 808 SignatureReference short-lived TAG Mclaren Audio operation. Scaled to TMA's CD player. helpfirl. Back in the late grand ambitions rather than to i* actual needs,this superb mod- 1980s,we did a lot of work ern faciliw came complete with anechoic chamber, EMC test on noiseslupers.And we made A/D converters that could be suite, and severalpuqpose-built listening,/screeningrooms with used for making CDs--a lot of the Stueophilediscs, for example, full acoustictreatments-althouglr, as Stuart says,"tW'e did tweak usedthe Meridian 518or 618 noiseshapingprocessors, and a lot of all the rooms.-We certainly made it sound like we wanted it to!" recordingsftom people like Tony Faulkner-they'd start with 20- When I soent an afternoon there with Bob Stuart some bit and then use our processor.So you can get more than 16 bits' monthsrnths aeo.ago, tt t"tk.d of Meridian's.rccentMeridian'sqgent life-chaneinelife-changing deal effective dynamic range on a disc But to play that back, you have with Faroudja,new formats, and the futuie. But the fust topic to to have a player dnt doesnt do snrpid things, and 99.9990/oof come up was the stateof the CD-player market. playen will truncate a signal.Our playerswonlt So if you've got a beautifully made recording you can actually get more than 16-bit BoB STUART:ICs certainly alive and well where we are, Steve. anyway.But you cant get more thafr,44.7kJIz. The new audio formats haven'tproduced a catalogof any size. The recordings with the 518-listen to some of the ones that If you are a music lover, you have no choice but to listen to John Atkinson did, or Tony, they're breathtakingly clear. ICs a CD, or to download it in some andrl format. question of how close the microphone is, how important the When DVD came along, we could and we did make DVD 44.7kHz is. For a lot of natural acoustics,chamber music, playersthat played back CD very well indeed-but a dedicated things like that, it's lessof an issue.But if you're right in close- CD player is alwaysbetter than one that doesother things, no like that thing we were listening to here this morning, where matter how hard you try. There are also people who want a the microphone is clearly stuffed into the bell of the saxo- CD player becausethey actually don't want video-the cus- phone-switch to 96kHz recordinq and iCsbetter. tomers who say,"I don't want a DVD player in my house,I just But we believe that we should-providethe best instrument want to listen to music." for people to enjoy a music collection. People say,well, "This Now the Meridian 800 DVD machine is a fabulous DVD is bewer," or "SACD can do this," or "DVD-Audio can do player,but it's also a really that"-but if you can't find a recording by the artist you want good CD player.But nev- of the piece you want, it's a nonstarter. ertheless,when I took out HARRIS:Evm f CD sala arehealilry, Meridian\ pimary focustoday is the DVD functions, when the hometheater marhet. In ffiid-2005, Muidian signedan exclusiue I took out the abilicy for it worldwideagreemmt to manufactureand dktribute one of themox respea- to make a picture, the edand innouative uideo-technolog brands. How did thiscome about? sound quality on CD got STUART:When we were approachedby Faroudja,we'd worked better. It's all about refin- with them over a number of yearsat shows.They'd put up an ing and refining. No mat- exhibition and we'd give them a sound system,and we'd use ter how well you designsomethingifyou can remove apoten- their projector in our booth, stufflike that, so we kind of knew tial source ofinterference, idll get better. eachother. And they just saidthat what they were looking for That's how we did the 808. Ids the most musical machine- was the companythat matched their brand in audio, the com- you put a CD on it, you just get lost in the music. Becauseit pany that did the best qualiry that could market the product. has no glare, it is tremendously open-deep, tremendous The reasonthat all happenedis that Faroudjahad ended up space-it's really, really easy to listen to. And thads the kind of being owned by the semiconductorhouse GenesisMicrochip, sound that Meridian has always headed for. Absolutely locked: and Genesisno longer wanted to manufactureboxes. There's the sound of real instrumentsin real space. a huge differencein scale.The chip companywas much bigger 16-bitis noufu thn? than the box company,and it's very hard to run a businesslike sTEvEHARRIS: So 'Whereas, STUART:No. ICs not enough. On some recordings you can hear that. It's hard to provide the focus. for Meridian, the limitations of that. More the limitations of the 44.1kHz than what Faroudjawere doing was a perfect fit. Samekind of deal- ofthe 16 bits. Sixteen bits give you a 90dB dynamic range. Ifthe ers, same kind of distributors, same goals-to make the very recording is properly made and the A,/D convertels good" and best home theater, and fiom home theater up to screening at the mixing or mastering stage they didn't forget to dither it rooms. So we were very excited.The terms of the deal are also properly, within the window between the peak level of the ouite unusual.It's a very modern sort of arrangementthat we v'r't'rw.Stereophile.com,September 2006 THE PRIMEMERIDIAN reached.We took over the businessoperation, so we make the by closing the loop. The thing that I really like about it is that boxes, we make video processors,we make the projectors. the picture quality we can make is outstanding. As you know, We'll make other things-there'll be display devicescoming, we're doing projectorsbased on the D-ILA technology. and we'll be making other video processors. Usually, picnrres that you seewill have been processedseveral But we also have accessto all of GenesisMicrochip's video times-once in the playe4 and then finally rn the projeaor itse[ R&D, including all their new video algorithms.