Bad Meridian Sound

Well, if you're a sound engineer, you'll have no trouble reverse engineering the installation and making the modifications you need.

Meridian is a small but well regarded company and I expect that their design - and especially their digital signal processing - are implemented in Chinese built products. They could not possibly, as a manufacturing operation, turn out the equivalent of one system every couple of minutes to meet the Evoque production requirements. I expect they have done the best possible within a very tight parts and installation budget - a parts budget of, say, £200 doesn't go very far.

I don't think contacting Meridian directly will help you much. It's likely a proprietary system and they will be bound by confidentiality.

First step would be to find the sound box, I expect under one of the front seats or passenger footwell. As for sound, I would have thought improving the quality of the tweeters might help but the DSP software will make assumptions about the loudspeakers fitted so that if you change them, the DSP calibration will be out.

I think the scope for after-market tweaking is probably quite small.

How about the JBL / Harman MS-8?
http://ms8.jbl.com/

At least it will give you a 31-band equalizer to fiddle with.

Thanks for your statements, but after some checks again: The Meridian sound is no quality sound and cannot be easily improved in a simple way at the moment - that are the bad news. There is no chance to get a clear and defined neutral setting. Hi-mids are tweeting nasty and the "phone-sounding" frequencies are overtuned in every case of setting - or the high frequencies get lost. Maybe some people like it or have no sense for it - but it is definitely no sign of quality.

Bytheway @mark_n: True words!

The system, is checked - the dealer says "everything is ok with the soundsystem". Maybe there is a difference between europan and brit-models?

I'm not a crazy audiophile, but someone who knows how to manage and scale good sound for the people. We design sound - and not only high-end sound. We often scale it - what means - the soundquality is adapted to the quality and worth of a product or medium, and then we find the best compromise. We call it "soundmarketing".

And in this case of the evoque there is a big gap between promise and reality of the soundquality. Thats, what I'm angry about - and that there is no possibility to change it. That could and should be a job for Range. Not only buying the label Meridian to "guarantee" good sound...
The presentation and hype with the soundsystem is far away from the pre-promised quality.
I mentioned other manufacturers - we made some fair tests - almost all of them do it better, sorry.

Please don't missunderstand me, I write this as a big fan of the evo, and everyday I have a lot of fun with the car. But when I'm turning on the soundsystem, the fun gets lost. And that makes me displeased.

We are a small community of evo-drivers and we will try to find a solution (the suggested MS-8-mod is complex and its not sure if it works with the internal audiobus, but thanks!) - we hope to find a way to modify the soundbox in a simple way - it could be possible, if the DSP is accessible.

But the much better way would be, if RangeRover solves the problem and gives us soon a firmware-update with a change or re-arrangement of the soundsettings - this could not be a big problem. But we will see, if it "comes up to them".

Unfortunately the car is such a hype, that even some true quality problems ar "overhyped" by a lot of people. Lucky you, Rangers
But we stay tuned.

sorry evoifan..sound on y car is brill also...guess you have a rogue sytem there!!! It isn't as good as the Harman Kardon in the RRS...but it is good and more than adequate.

(15-11-2011 11:09pm)evofan Wrote:  Thanks for your statements, but after some checks again: The Meridian sound is no quality sound and cannot be easily improved in a simple way at the moment - that are the bad news. There is no chance to get a clear and defined neutral setting. Hi-mids are tweeting nasty and the "phone-sounding" frequencies are overtuned in every case of setting - or the high frequencies get lost. Maybe some people like it or have no sense for it - but it is definitely no sign of quality.

Bytheway @mark_n: True words!

The system, is checked - the dealer says "everything is ok with the soundsystem". Maybe there is a difference between europan and brit-models?

I'm not a crazy audiophile, but someone who knows how to manage and scale good sound for the people. We design sound - and not only high-end sound. We often scale it - what means - the soundquality is adapted to the quality and worth of a product or medium, and then we find the best compromise. We call it "soundmarketing".

And in this case of the evoque there is a big gap between promise and reality of the soundquality. Thats, what I'm angry about - and that there is no possibility to change it. That could and should be a job for Range. Not only buying the label Meridian to "guarantee" good sound...
The presentation and hype with the soundsystem is far away from the pre-promised quality.
I mentioned other manufacturers - we made some fair tests - almost all of them do it better, sorry.

Please don't missunderstand me, I write this as a big fan of the evo, and everyday I have a lot of fun with the car. But when I'm turning on the soundsystem, the fun gets lost. And that makes me displeased.

We are a small community of evo-drivers and we will try to find a solution (the suggested MS-8-mod is complex and its not sure if it works with the internal audiobus, but thanks!) - we hope to find a way to modify the soundbox in a simple way - it could be possible, if the DSP is accessible.

But the much better way would be, if RangeRover solves the problem and gives us soon a firmware-update with a change or re-arrangement of the soundsettings - this could not be a big problem. But we will see, if it "comes up to them".

Unfortunately the car is such a hype, that even some true quality problems ar "overhyped" by a lot of people. Lucky you, Rangers
But we stay tuned.

I'm sorry Evofan but in my opinion the Meridian sound is superb, compared to other car sound systems. I'm not a sound engineer and probably you're ok with your opinions because you're a proffesional, but I'm sure that for most of the people the RRE Meridian sound is excellent.

How many soundsystems an which soundsystem from other manufaturers did you compare? Please give some serious details. Which Meridian do you have and which settings have you set?

We checked with three professionals and 8 independent consumers the Standard BMW 3, Sony-Ford Galaxy, the small B+O Audi A5, the Bose Audi A1 + A3, and the Dynaudio Volvo XC 60.

Every System does it better than the Meridians! Sorry!

In defence of Evofan I sat in a Prestige Lux pack demonstrator at my dealer and played a CD by Ghost Poet - Peanut Butter Blues And Melancholy Jam and was distinctly under whelmed compared with the system in my Vogue SE (Harmon Kardon Logic 7). I did not have long to adjust the settings but was still concerned having shelled so much out on the order for the Evoque.

I will wait for delivery of my car and have sufficient time to adjust the settings to my liking before I make a final conclusion. The overall impression was lack of dynamic range with insufficient power, maybe I need a second audition, with a few different sound sources, to draw a final conclusion.

I love the sound system. I have the 17 speaker one or wtvr it is.
It is well balanced, crisp, and loud.
Bass frequencies are very nice and the sub is great!
I've got my degree in sound engineering & audio production, so i do somewhat know what i'm talking about!
Comparing to Harman Kardon Logic 7 in our ML63 AMG and S63 AMG, this meridian seems far superior.
I've listened to every genre of music and this sound system is accommodating to all!

(19-11-2011 10:20pm)vcruiser Wrote:  I love the sound system. I have the 17 speaker one or wtvr it is.
It is well balanced, crisp, and loud.
Bass frequencies are very nice and the sub is great!
I've got my degree in sound engineering & audio production, so i do somewhat know what i'm talking about!
Comparing to Harman Kardon Logic 7 in our ML63 AMG and S63 AMG, this meridian seems far superior.
I've listened to every genre of music and this sound system is accommodating to all!

Vcruiser that is very encouraging given the UK cost of the system is £995. I clearly need more time with the system and not go on first impressions with limited time to adjust settings. I am not accustomed to the Meridian sound having had Bowers and Wilken and Cyrus speakers in my domestic HiFi, I no doubt will become used t the sound in time.

Ok, VCruiser - I have big doubts on your assessment, sorry. But we can surely clear that, lets get it on!
So maybe you could describe the sound, like a professional engineer will do.
Make your assessment of the meridian-sound detailed and clear and reveal your degree!

I like this car very much and I have no reason to denounce it. But there is a need and a chance for a improvement!

We all know, Landrover is reading AND also sometimes writing here, because its as important as a little ad-campaign.
And we all know, that such a big hype of the car is not only because of its genes. And we all know, that critical voices often will be overruled, because they could have bad effects on the marketing and disturb the hype.
But critical voices could also lead to some improvements.
Just for the joy and benefit for every evoque-user. Thats what babyrr.com should be!

Back to audio: Sound is often a matter of taste - but the basics are no matter of taste! @Vcruise: if you engineer professional sound, my esteemed colleague, you would admit, that some basics on which you can build good sound are failed in the evoque!

We are 3 independent engineers that make professional sound f.e. for broadcasting, advertising and national re-recordings for blockbuster-movies. We are experienced since over 15 years in doing that. So if you tell me about great sound in the evoque I have big big doubts on your profession, sorry.
And also our 8 unprofessional "test-persons" have been more or less disappointed by the meridian-sound in comparison. So what is going on here?

Maybe you could explain, why you hear not a huge difference between radio sound and cd/usb sound (and dont tell me its about the FM - because we heard the meridian, b+o and dynaudio at the same place and the same time - and all other system had not such a big difference between the sources).

And maybe you can tell me, why the music and speech in the Evoque appears "dyed" and completely different from flat, neutral systems?

And maybe you can tell me, why the meridian equalizer has not a little good effect on the sound?

And maybe you can tell me the reason why the technical measurements we did in the car also show the lack of the system and give a evidence for our heard impressions?

I can only speak to all the readers here - be critical and don't trust the hypers - convince yourself about the meridian-sound with your own music.

And if you then personally think it's good and you like it - be happy and stay pleased.

A bit offtopic - but I think you will like it: