Bad Meridian Sound

Blimey, I like my quality music but really no matter how good a sound system you throw in you are always sat in a tin can with engine, road and background noise detracting from the experience. It needs to be good, but this is not your living room or a sound lab!

We will see when I get mine if I'm loving it or disappointed since I didnt go for the upgraded version!

I was pretty underwhelmed with it on my test drive, pretty disappointed seeing as it was a big attraction.

Don't like the b&o in the q5 either. There's a new "standard" q5 audio specc'd here in Aus and I reckon it was better

Both seemed wooly to me, in different ways. The Meridian was flat feeling,muffled, and I played with the settings. Seemed all lower mids (I'm a guitar player not engineer so my terminology might be different).

Perhaps the speakers will benefit from running in. Did in my current car.

First, thanks to Evofan for that link to the X1/Q3/RRE - the RRE is clearly superior.

However, there are lots of words about how bad the Meridian system is but his comments are very short on specifics. First to evaluate are the audio basics - frequency response, output power and distortion levels.

I haven't counted the speakers and where they are in the car but the 385/825 Watt ratings (or whatever they are) are probably mis-leading but I'd be interested in the evaluation with equalisation and surround-sound processing turned off. Is the sound basically clean, and if not, where in the frequency range does it fall apart? Doors make less than ideal speaker cabinets...

Also, take Bluetooth and digital streaming out of the equation and use CD as the source. Bluetooth and MP3 are always going to compromise quality.

Without that good basic audio engineering, adding equalisation and other digital signal processing - such as adding delays to the channels closest to the driver's ears cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...

So, where is he problem?

- Speaker positioning/mounting/type/power handling?
- analogue audio power/distortion/frequency response?
- input signal quality, FM/DAB reception, CD/Bluetooth?
- Digital signal processing to provide equalisation and surround-sound?

As I have said before, Meridian stuff is highly regarded (though they adopt the same feeble LR customer service model and have recently lost some business from me for that reason) but it may be the sound sounds too processed. I have only heard the sound in an Evoque once and was quite underwhelmed but didn't have the opportunity to look at settings - to my ears it sounded underpowered and muffled and rather bass-heavy.

I have not ordered the upgraded system, so will be interested in further comments.

Ok, On a rather small song count of 2 (Muse, so bassy Rock), 325W system... Awesome... Blows my upgraded Bose system in the Mazda into the weeds...

Maybe if you're an absolute audiophile, It could, just maybe could, sound slightly muffled mid-range, and if I had the upgraded system, which I don't, I would want a graphic equalizer rather than Bass, Treble and Balance/fade.

For a system that lives in a car don't be concerned about it. The standard system is more than you'll have likely ever experienced in a vehicle before.

Didn't want to take it past 25% as it gets LOUD... (And i'm doing this at 7am) I did move the sound toward the back slightly and increase the volume to make it more evenly spread for the driver. It has a cute graphical display to move the sound balance around.

Anyway the speakers need to bed in and loosen up so given this will get better... it's plenty enough for me.

Love the usb port reader, doesn't seem to show album art, but picks up MP3 tags for track, artist and Album.

(22-11-2011 09:00am)PhilSkill Wrote:  Anyway the speakers need to bed in and loosen up so given this will get better... it's plenty enough for me.

I thought I only had to run the brakes and tyres in?
Is this true? Shall I crank up the volume a bit to improve my speakers?

(22-11-2011 01:49pm)Acwats Wrote:  I thought I only had to run the brakes and tyres in?
Is this true? Shall I crank up the volume a bit to improve my speakers?

Hi acwats
The whole car is new, so I just treat it with a little respect to start with, not pushing any limits, but nothing special, all moving parts just bed themselves in and loosen up, incl speakers, the flexible material around the outside of the cone will be a fraction stiff when new, and will soften after after a while allowing the cone to move more freely, hopefully improving the sound...

I am struggling to believe that a standard BMW 3-series beats anything - the stereos in BMWs are usually seriously pants... But I havent heard either meridian system yet

I did have an experience with an A6 avant with Bose upgrade - very disappointed with the sound, so got an ICE expert to have a look. He tweaked the setup and fitted a better power cable to the battery and the sound was transformed. He also told me that you should go for the biggest factory audio upgrade as that is usually going to be cheaper than doing anything after market

I have no sound qualifications - except for my Naim / Linn home audio system!

I love music and consider myself an audiophile. My home system is British HighEnd (Audiolab and a pair of Spendor 75/1 active).

I have tested the Meridian system with my best sounding CDs:

Procol Harum - The long Goodbye (oop)
Young Messiah - A soulful Celebration (oop)

The sound of both CDs was overwhelming, I was blown away and you can believe me that I know both albums pretty well. The Meridian system is brutally honest and that is the key to Evofans problems. Evofan wrote "we design sounds" and he gives examples (commercials, sound for blockbusters - perfect examples for unnatural sounds).

It was a very brave decision to with Meridian because this system will not cover up a poor source or sound. Any "designed/compressed" (unnatural) sounds (that includes FM radio and I-Phones) will sound as average or poor as they are.

I have tested both Meridian systems. The difference is much smaller than expected.

My car has the upgraded system - I agree with herrmoby - a poorly produced or highly compressed sound doesn't sound great (but that was the same with the B&O in my Audi previously). I've since re-recorded music as full lossless or just use the original CDs and the difference is remarkable (and I don't consider myself in any way an expert in this). DAB radio sounds good too. I'm overall very happy with the sound quality. I test drove a couple of cars which as far as I know had the standard system and they also sounded pretty good to me.

Yep standard system is stonkingly good, I cant imagine how much better the upgraded system can be. I'm hearing things in the music i've never heard before! Love it!