Video Asylum

Posted by lwang (A) on September 28, 2003 at 21:51:32

In Reply to: Processor Rec's posted by Jof on September 09, 2003 at 21:28:22:

Meridian has the Trifield mode, which actually enhances 2ch playback by making the frontal soundstage more focused. It is not some hokey ambiance mode or things like DPLII that steers sound from speaker to speaker.

Most reviews of the Meridian gears praises Trifield, including one on TAS of the 861/800 in which the reviewer said the 800 could operate on its own, but he would prefer to have the $25k 861 working with it to get Trifield.

The 565 has 7 channel, good for all modes, including DPL (Dolby only recently are doing it with their DPLIIx). The 561 has 5 channel (plus 2 more if you use Meridian digital speakers) but has DPLII and some video switching.

Don't be so concerned with the Meridian 565 not having the latest and greatest DAC, the difference between them pales when compared to the advantage Trifield will bring you. Anyway, Meridian has all those like upsampling, FIFO jitter reduction, DVD-A decoding, etc.