Meridian – the future of sound
Celebrating 40 years of technological firsts and performance highs, Meridian continues to bring the future of sound now.
In 1983, Meridian Audio was the first British company to manufacture a CD player, and in 1990, the first to introduce for the domestic market active loudspeakers with power amplifiers inside the cabinet. Meridian created the first digital surround-sound processor, and the first loudspeaker using Digital Signal Processing. All of these have been acclaimed for their performance, winning awards around the world. The technology Meridian has developed is now being used by other companies globally, defining how we experience home entertainment today.
The number of unique technologies that have been developed by Meridian over the course of the company’s history is impressive in itself. That these technologies have set standards for the rest of the industry goes even further to prove a reputation for innovation and the pursuit of perfection. One of the most notable of these technologies is the Meridian Lossless Packing standard used in DVD-Audio as well as the sound on High-Definition formats including HD DVD and Blu-ray.
Through constant development, evolution and refinement, Meridian has worked to create compact hardware and speakers, while simultaneously advancing the capabilities of its processing technology to increase the quality of audio output. Now in its 40th year, Meridian remains at the forefront of innovation — and shows no signs of slowing down.
How it began
Meridian was founded in July 1977 by J. Robert Stuart, known to his friends as Bob, and Allen Boothroyd. Allen and Bob had worked together as consultants since the early 1970s; their early projects included the famous Lecson Audio product line, which remains on permanent display in the New York Museum of
Modern Art and for which they won their first British Design Council Award in 1974.
Over the next few years, the product line grew steadily into the 100 Series (main image opposite), for which the company received a second British Design Council Award in 1982. “Meridian eliminates all unnecessary electronic gimmickry”, said the company’s US advertisements for the 100 Series, emphasising not only purity of sound, but ease of use. “Optimum sound reproduction is foolproof”, it said. “There is no gadgetry to blur or distort the original performance”.
Bob Stuart was involved in the very early stages of the development of Compact Disc through his connections with Philips in Holland, so that in 1983, Meridian launched the first CD player to be made in Britain. This product — the MCD — was acclaimed for its performance with the new silver discs, winning awards for best-sounding CD player in seven major countries, including Japan and the USA.
The 200 Series & D600
In 1986, the first products of a new 200 Series were launched “the intelligent high fidelity system”, as Meridian called it, denouncing the reputation of British hi-fi equipment as having “fine sound quality but staid execution”. This series was to last until 1993 and, through continuing development, grew to include the whole range of domestic hi-fi plus digital-to-analogue converters and a range of multi-room components. The 208 CD player introduced Meridian’s newly developed proprietary coherent-differential Bitstream Conversion, and a pioneering series of active loudspeakers was developed and brought to market, followed by the world’s first digitally-driven loudspeaker the D600.
Made possible by the company’s continuing development of its skills in audio-related digital signal processing, the D600 up-ended conventional notions of what constituted a hi-fi system. “The D600 Digital Loudspeakers, partnered with 206 Compact Disc Player, forms a state-of-the-art CD replay system” explained the company, “to which can be added analogue sources any two can be connected to the D600’s analogue inputs. All communication and control is by handset from the listening position.” Meridian was inventing the future, setting the stage for today’s file-based tablet-controlled wireless audio systems.
Digital innovation
Meridian has continued to develop active and digital loudspeakers throughout the years. In 1990, the world’s first speaker using Digital Signal Processing (DSP) — the DSP6000 — was launched, combining world-class acoustic and drive-unit technology with multiple built-in power amps and the new “performance-enhancing” DSP and digital
conversion systems. It was, said Meridian “the ultimate expression of the speaker builder’s art”, at least until 1996, when the company launched its flagship DSP loudspeaker, the DSP8000 (left).
Another major step forward came in 1993, when the 500 Series was launched, becoming a key product line for the next decade. The company entered the emerging home theatre market the following year with another first, the Meridian Digital Theatre concept, based on the company’s range of digital loudspeakers and the 565 Surround Sound Decoder. The Digital Theatre and the 565 won more than 10 awards in their first 12 months of production.
The company’s 800 Reference Series was introduced in 1997. In addition to the highest quality sound, this brought another new concept for hi-fi maximum flexibility by being designed as “a card-based Audiophile Digital Computer”. With everything on cards, from the inputs and outputs to the control microprocessor, DVD decoders, tape modules and ever-growing custom interfaces, the user could put together just the right functions, and any aspect of the machine’s performance could be altered or upgraded later.
In 2003, the G Series was launched the seventh series of products in the company’s history. The objective with this line was to increase the number of combination products, made possible by the larger enclosure size.
Following the success of the G Series products, Meridian moved both its UK headquarters in
“The future is bright for Meridian Audio as it celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, with upcoming product launches, comprehensive partnerships and a number of prestigious events planned...”
Huntingdon, near Cambridge, and its US subsidiary, Meridian America, Inc, into new, larger premises in August 2004. The company still remains in the 5200m2 state-of-the-art, purpose-built UK facility today, complete with manufacturing, warehousing, development and office space set in five acres of land.
During 2006, following a licensing agreement with Genesis Microchip Inc. to develop the Faroudja brand, Meridian released two 1080p video projectors and an accompanying multifunction video processor. The custom installation market was further served by a new line of 300 Series in/on-wall loudspeakers and C Series components for this new sector being developed further presently (see opposite).
In 2007, Meridian started the year with the release of a stunning new product - a complete, compact entertainment system developed in co-operation with Ferrari S.p.A. The F80 was widely and continually acclaimed in the international press. In 2008, an additional compact system was introduced in the form of the Alfred Dunhill AD88, also to widespread praise. The F80 was later superseded by the M80.
In December 2008, following a short period of collaborative development, Meridian successfully acquired Sooloos LLC, a manufacturer of server-based home entertainment systems widely acknowledged as the most innovative and sophisticated available - as well as the most intuitive and easiest to use. A 17-inch touch screen controller — the Control 10 (above) — was the first of a growing range of products to integrate the powerful features of the Meridian Digital Media System with Meridian’s class-leading audio systems.
Meridian and Wavetrain
In Australia Meridian partners with Wavetrain, the award-winning home cinema design company and distributor. Wavetrain offers Meridian’s full range of products and services to its dealers across Australia, supporting Meridian’s growth throughout this key target market. Wavetrain’s unique combination of Home Cinema design service with training and support for dealers, in addition to product distribution, is epitomised in the ‘natural fit’ partnership between Wavetrain and Meridian, both companies aiming to deliver outstanding business-to-business support, personalised dealings and best practice education for its dealer networks.
Wavetrain’s complementary Design and Specification Service integrates its partners’ technologies into solutions, allowing integrators to quickly and easily specify the right products for installation projects, whether it requires D-box motion systems, Severtson Screens, Trinnov
processing or Artnovion panels. The Design and Specification Service also minimises the challenge faced by integrators working on multiple projects.
Wavetrain and Meridian recently launched the ‘Dealer School’ training initiative, hosted in Wavetrain’s spectacular demo home theatre in Sydney, with a focus on giving dealers the full range of skills they need to design and create world-class home theatres. Integrators can now participate in new dedicated training sessions on four key areas, as well as two existing courses.
Meridian turns forty!
The future is bright for Meridian Audio as it celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. As part of this momentous occasion, the company has announced exciting plans for the year ahead, with upcoming product launches, comprehensive partnerships and a number of prestigious events in its drive to provide the very best in high-res audio solutions.
Throughout 2017, Meridian is introducing new, innovative products to help home technology integrators put their clients at the centre of the listening experience. Meridian has recently launched the 218 zone controller and 258 power amplifier, both products helping to deliver a comprehensive home theatre solution, regardless of existing audio and multi-zone media systems. Adding power, simplicity of integration and performance, the 218 and 258 products use Meridian’s unique up-sampling technology to significantly improve audio quality with ease. Equally exciting new products are set to be unveiled during the company’s 40th year.
To complete the celebrations, Meridian is organising a 40th anniversary event at CEDIA San Diego on the evening of Friday 8th September, where a number of new products will be introduced to the market. This will be followed in Huntingdon, UK, with a product launch event later in October, outlining plans for the coming year, and at ISE 2018 where additional new products will be unveiled to the European market as a continuation of the 40th anniversary celebrations.