Meridian G68ADV: were AV Processor Ever Good?

[XeCutor]

I was oh so pleased when my 5 year old UHD Samsung TV became obsolete because it didnt support HDCP 2.2

That sounds highly annoying. Have you tried hdcp 2.2 to 1.4 converters that seem to be marketed just towards your problem? Some examples:

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-11...eywords=hdcp+2.2+to+1.4&qid=1586273494&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/gofanco-Prop...eywords=hdcp+2.2+to+1.4&qid=1586273494&sr=8-2

 

[sebackman]

Last posts not very Meridian related. Important topic and maybe material for a separate thread?

@amirm do you still have the G68 available. It would be interesting to hear how the digital side holds up and potentially also the ADC's.

Kind regards
//Rob

 

[March Audio]

That sounds highly annoying. Have you tried hdcp 2.2 to 1.4 converters that seem to be marketed just towards your problem? Some examples:

https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-11...eywords=hdcp+2.2+to+1.4&qid=1586273494&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/gofanco-Prop...eywords=hdcp+2.2+to+1.4&qid=1586273494&sr=8-2

I did try one but it didnt work properly. The TV has been sold now so its not an issue anymore.

 

[RayDunzl]

Meh, first thing we could do is rid ourselves of politicians. Start employing empiricists and give them instructions of the goals we want to realize.

We?

How will it be decided what "we" want?

 

[Srrndhound]

Dolby B licenses didn't have an upfront fee, but charged, if I remember correctly, 2 cents for each processor, so 8c on each tape machine sold, 4c on players only, like Walkmen.

Back in the B/C/S-type era there was a one-time fee to become a Dolby licensee. The royalties followed a sliding scale based on volume per calendar quarter. I think the model has evolved since my exit in 2008.

 

[Srrndhound]

I'm still searching for it, but there's a great thread out there on the internets which pretty convincingly showed that the 1.5mbps DTS core and the 640kbps DD which are contained on those discs for non hdmi processes were essentially bit perfect (as both companies had once claimed before they rolled out the lossless master thing and conveniently forgot that such was their original claim).

DTS coined a good term for it, perceptually lossless.

As good as high bitrate DD and DTS were and still are, there was no convincing certain quarters, and when the topic of applying perceptual models to audio sampled higher than 48 kHz, the answer was to discard anything above 20 kHz. Thus, in order to support hi-rez audio for music, DVD-A adopted MLP, which became TrueHD and has since blossomed into lossless Atmos on BD.

Now DD can have a lesser then 640kbps core, but foregoing that the only thing both Lossless versions hold over their lossy cores are the additional rear surround channels where applicable.

TrueHD does not use a DD core, but the Blu-ray format requires a DD companion for compatibility with the DVD ecosystem hardware that was based on Dolby Digital and S/PDIF. On the lossy side of the fence, DD+ is more capable than DD or DTS, and supports any channel configurations currently in commerce.

 

[ace_xp2]

Ah crap, that's right. I'd forgotten that Dolby didn't do cores, they had the companion which then could be less then full DD bit rate.

 

[sebackman]

"As good as high bitrate DD and DTS were and still are"

What does that mean in relation to an old Meridian G68? Does it mean that the bitstream received under DD & DTS is really good enough?

 

[Srrndhound]

"As good as high bitrate DD and DTS were and still are"

What does that mean in relation to an old Meridian G68? Does it mean that the bitstream received under DD & DTS is really good enough?

Let's not mix apples in with the oranges. The comment I made was in reference to " 1.5mbps DTS core and the 640kbps DD" sound quality. While DTS bitrates (on optical discs) never fall below 768 kbps, DD is commonly streamed at 384 kbps (same as the laser disc standard) and DD+ varies widely depending on the service and channel configuration. In all cases it seems the bitrate is quite adequate, and I myself have not experienced gross coding artefacts that distract from the presentation. But that is not to say they are on par with 640 kbps DD or TrueHD (lossless), so I am not claiming any such equivalence.

 

[ace_xp2]

"As good as high bitrate DD and DTS were and still are"

What does that mean in relation to an old Meridian G68? Does it mean that the bitstream received under DD & DTS is really good enough?

Assuming you're referring to the bitstream as in a given blu-ray outputting to spdif, then that's what I was pointing out yes. The full on core of blu ray dts at 1.5mbps, if you were to take and compare the output versus the lossless dts, the end result was essentially identical. This can be messier with DD because as mentioned they actually used a fully separate track for spdif and that track isn't necessarily 640kbps, though at that bitrate the result is equally good.

That was what the original forum posts I was mentioning showed. They took the output of both, and then compared the resulting waveforms, and showed that across multiple tracks they were identical. Not so close as to make no difference, but identical. I know it's out there somewhere, but we're talking a decade ago post from when this argument was running hot.

Now if as Srrndhound is taking it, and you're referring to any kind of stream, then yes it's very dependent on what exactly the stream is.

 

[stevenswall]

Last posts not very Meridian related. Important topic and maybe material for a separate thread?

@amirm do you still have the G68 available. It would be interesting to hear how the digital side holds up and potentially also the ADC's.

Kind regards
//Rob

I'd be interested in the digital side too, hopefully it's perfect... Maybe this with Genelecs would completely trash every single modern receiver that didn't have digital output, simply because it would rip the control away from Denon/Sony/Emotiva/Marantz/Anthem/Trinnov/basically everyone and put it in the hands of the speaker makers that seem to be competent.

 

[steve59]

With hi rez now so affordable meridian really needs to find a new market. The 218 lists for $1000 and is a decent preamp/ zone controller for meridian speakers, I wonder if the guts packed into the cheap little plastic box can compete with some of meridians top shelf products of old. I hope not.