Video Asylum

Posted by Charles Houston on December 13, 1999 at 21:37:14:

In Reply to: Lexicon vs Meridian posted by Ron on December 13, 1999 at 10:35:43:

I have an MC-1 which I am temporarily using only as a two-channel preamp. I cannot comment on its video competence, which gets stellar marks in the magazines.

It is extremely easy to use in terms of set-up, remote, display, etc. Build quality is fine, though Plain Jane. My only ergonomic gripe is that the front panel buttons are hard to see. Meridian's buttons are a bit easier to find, but not as easy as they should be. If that unit is as small as other Meridian gear (like my cd player), make sure the back panel is not so cramped that cabling becomes a chore. The Lexicon's flexibility of inputs and outputs is excellent with one exception: there is no bypass mode and all incoming analog signals are converted by the MC-1 to digital and back again to analog.

Reviews have been raves with one general exception: its performance as a two-channel preamp, which made the lack of a bypass mode more of a shortcoming. I was puzzled because the predecessor DC-1 earned plaudits for its audio performance and because the unit seemed to me to perform nicely. I decided to do an A-B test using a Krell 250p preamp in its "theater throughput" mode. Test A sent digital signals from my Meridian 508.24 cd player into the MC-1 where they were processed, then the MC-1's analog output was "bypassed" into and out of the Krell preamp (unprocessed) and sent on to the power amp and speakers. Test B sent an analog signal from the same cd player directly into the Krell preamp, which handled the processing. With the Krell remote all I had to do was shift between inputs to compare music processed by the Krell preamp with music processed by the Lexicon. To my ears, there was essentially no difference in performance.

In an hour of listening to perhaps ten cd's, often repeating small samples over and over, I was able to detect a difference only once or twice.

My test was pretty well controlled. The only variable was interconnects: Purist Collosus for the analog input and Purist Proteus for the digital. My amp is a Krell FPB 600 and the speakers are Eggleston Andras. Why did my results differ from the reviewers who knocked the MC-1's musical performance? Perhaps they had better preamps. Perhaps their ears are better than mine. (No "perhaps" about the latter.)

What would I advise you? If I were setting up a second system I'd try to borrow a Meridian for a week and get a sense for its ease of use and its performance. If I couldn't do that, I'd base the decision on price...or flip a coin.