Accuracy,soundstaging,the best processor available for combined audio/cinema installation

Not overly "cinematic"

The longer I have had this unit the more I have started to listen to music and the less I have watched films (sorry movies!).

As an AV processor it has everything and is capable of soundfields of awesome precision and authenticity. It has better bass performance than any of the other processors mentioned and sounds amazingly realistic ( especially across the front soundstage)

My only complaint is that it is possibly too good and this level of accuracy is not heard in your local cinema complex. Whilst it still trounces most processors I would say that the Lexicon delivers a more cinematic,more exiting delivery of movie soundtracks, even though it is probably less neutral.

I have not had a chance to try out the new Meridian EZ processing as my room does not allow for seven speaker set ups. This may change this view as the Lexicon was listened to in simulated Logic 7.

Turn to music however the 568 TROUNCES allcomers, including many respected preamps and separate dacs.The upsampling does work, removing any trace of digital hardness and moving the soundstage back whilst subtly expanding it. It could be that the changes are mistaken for a loss of dynamics. Give it a chance, especially if you like female vocals. You will not switch it off!!

Used with a Meridian 500 transport, it loses little to Krell KCT/KPS28 combo I have recently tried.

In summary this is the best all round AV preamp currently on the market, unless you've got $20000!!

Similar Products Used:

Lexicon DC2,Theta Casanova, TAG AVR32

DAC, DD/DTS, Upgradability, Overall Sound

Remote.

Well I have had this third unit for almost a month and I have had no problem what so ever with it. It seems like the got the problem fixed, and I am not plugging it in the panamax anymore either.The sound is still the best thing I have heard to date. Please don't let the problems that I have experienced with the unit to keep you from listening to this piece. With all the trouble I have had with it, I still would not trade it for anything else. I believe my problems with units might have started because of the panamax 1000 line conditioner. Anyway this is a great piece of audio gear go give it a listen. I am changing my rating back to 5 for value but only 4 for overall rating. again due to the bugs! Otherwise the unit is a 10.

Design focuses on high performance music and surround playback, with ease of use, and flexible set up

None to speak of in this category

I am a current owner of Meridian's 561, which is an outstanding, but somewhat underated processor. While the 561 sounds very good (very close to what Meridian's 508.24 is capable of sounding like with a good preamp)the attraction of the 568's 24 bit dacs, balanced outputs, and upsampling promises even better sound. I was able to audition the new 568 at home and compare it to my 561. I'll say up front that the 568 doesn't immediately impress as sounding significantly better then the 561. The 561's bass is more rounded sounding, where as the 568 is slightly leaner with more bass pitch definition. I didn't sense that the bass went any deeper. I also did not hear a noticeable improvement with the upsampling turned on. There was also a subtle, but noticeable increase in transparency. Overall the 568 easily matches the 508.24 paired with a good preamp. At this moment I am undecided whether to upgrade to the 568. The improvements over the 561 are subtle, but add to one's listening enjoyment. For folks considering between the 561 and 568 I believe the extra 1500 is worth it if you don't require video switching, and if the rest of your system can resolve the differences. However, at 5000 dollars the 561 is a very good processor which in my opinion betters Proceed's AVP in music playback and surround sound. BTW, I have not experienced any hum or noise from my 561.

508.24 Transport
561
Sony 7700
Bryston 7Bs/5B
Transparent Ultra
Thiel CS7.2
Thiel MCS1
B&W 805 Matrix

Similar Products Used:

561, AVP, Theta Casanova

Balanced outputs to elimate Hum, Bass routing that actually works, Flash Rom upgradable (a god send)

Runs hot, Requires $2500 562V.2 for a "complete" system

I'm not going to give it a full review since I did not compare it directly with the competition this time and many features I like about the Meridian 561 are still true as well as what I don’t like about some of the competition. You can find a review I did on the 561 on www.audioreview.com

I'm just going to review mostly things that differentiate it from the 561.

Equipment is currently:

Pioneer DVL-919 (sounds the same as a 508.24 as a transport to my ears)
Sony 34DH1
Monster Balanced 1000i on Front Left Right (Preamp to Amp)
Monster Single Ended 1000i on Center and rears (Preamp to Amp)
Monster BiWire on Front/Center/Right (Amps to Speakers)
Heavy Zip cord for Rears
No subs.
No Sides.
Meridian 568 (was 561)
Rotel Tuner (I forget model middle of the range)
Yamaha HiFi VCR
Krell 250a for Front Mains Amp
Kenwood 100x6 KM-X1 Amp (Center and Rears)
B&W N803's Front Left/Right
B&W HTM (Matrix) Center
B&W SCM Dipole Rears
Pronto Remote

Also realize that the 568 is designed to go with a 562V.2 for a complete integrated solution which I elected to not buy. The 568 should not be penalized for some features it appears to be missing. But if you include the 562V.2 you should be comparing it with $9000.00 (List preamps).

Keep in mind that I’m being VERY critical here for a $6500.00 preamp. The fact that I’m keeping it should make it clear that I’m very pleased with it.

Two major differences are Bass and Hum.

The 561 actually does a pretty damn good job on Bass in practice. The 561 blew away the Lexicon DC-1 with w.r.t. Bass (with my speaker configuration). But 568 really is quite leap better than the 561 in two areas. One area is DD (and probably any other Multi-channel discrete format) on *MY* speaker configuration (namely no sub). The 561 does reroute Bass from small speakers to the mains but not nearly enough (like 10-20dB to little). I don't know if this is by design, hardware or software. I tested with the AVIA DVD. The 561 may route the correct Bass to a sub but not to Large speakers. In practice this may not be a large concern since most sound racks send bass to the main channels. When listening to Music or Movies I did not find the 561 lacking much in Bass. Perhaps because it's so simple it does not mess it up like a Lexicon DC-1 did. On the 568 with the AVIA test, it does exactly what you would expect. The small speakers have EXACTLY the same reading as the large ones in both low and high frequencies.

The second area the 568 excels in Bass over the 561 is overall bass presence (even in 2 channel sources). Let me explain. When I upgraded my Matrix 803’s to Nautilus 803’s what I gained in midrange precision I seemed to lose in Bass presence (it was tighter but missing a critical level of impact). A big part is not the speaker itself but how each speaker reacted with the room and placement. I was very tempted to add a sub which I REALLY wanted to avoid. But a very pleasant and unexpected surprised happened when I put the 568 in. The Bass is perfect, powerful, tight, sweet and no temptation to add a sub.

Now for Hum:

The 561 always had a nagging hum that I was not too happy with. I did much of the usual tricks of isolating it and it just pointed at some incompatibility between my amps and the 561. It was not bad hum, 99% of the time you’d never know it, but once in a while during a quiet passage of movie or music you could hear it. My Krell always did significantly better than my Kenwood regarding hum.

The 568 was a huge improvement, especially on the balanced outputs (I’ll never buy another AMP or Preamp without Balanced Inputs or Outputs). On the balanced outputs it went to zero (exactly 6dB more of gain to boot). On the single ended outputs I still had some hum (not nearly as much as the 561 though). I learned several tricks to improve it further. Cable routing is critical and an AC to DC power cube was radiating an electro magnetic field that just went right through the cables. Note: the adapter was added due to the lack of triggers on the 568. So that was not the cause of hum on the 561. I had thought coupling the cables together helped but part of this was it essentially, at the same time, pulled the cables away from the power cube. But I still think it does help and my dealer recommended it as well and even went as far as suggesting that I twist the cables together.

One difficulty on the 568 is that the Center output is quite a ways from the rear (which is the common amp they run to) and the Balanced outputs are smack in the middle. I also added a shielded power cord (by the way Krell stuff comes standard with shielded power cords). The more shielding the better and cost very little to add. Ok now the mains are nil on Hum, the center will some day be on balanced as well. But for now the single ended center and rears going to the cheaper amp are quite respectable. I can hear hum about 6 inches away from each speaker in a perfectly quiet room, all windows closed, drapes closed, heating system off etc.). The transformers in the Krell amp, Kenwood amp (the worst offender), and even the 568 are louder from the listening position than any speaker hum.

I also upgraded all Preamp to Amp cables to Monster 1000i. I had already chosen the 1000i for the balanced cable and was happy with the build quality. A cheaper cable may of done just as well but I just didn’t have the time or energy to experiment (just what audio cable companies want you to do). I did want to beef up the shielding on the single ended cables because I knew the power cube radiation was passing through it like butter. I was going to make my own, but then I learned the 1000i Balanced and Single-Ended 1000i monsters are the SAME cable. Once I learned this I wanted all the same cables and I could change the ends later for an additional balanced cable when I upgrade the amp. I’m not a big fan of monster cable, I just sort of some how end up with them for some strange reason. I always disliked their RCA connectors being to stiff. But the top of the line monster RCA connectors have more slits and are much more forgiving, I’d even go as far as saying good. So now I have all matched cables, super shielding, cable switching between balanced and singled etc. and have yet a bigger hole in my wallet.

Ok now for the infamous “Upsampling”

Nada, Nothing, Zip, Zilch, Can’t hear it. I can hear the trick mentioned on the Forum that if you toggle it on and off with say a CD player on Pause, Volume very high and ear to tweeter (be careful) you can hear the Hiss changes significantly. If you have the source set to 24 bit you will not hear a difference when you toggle “HS”. If you have the source set to 16 bit you will. So it is doing something. I did most of my testing in Direct with two presets having it on or off. You can’t test for audible differences with Trifield, Music, etc. since the rear speakers being shutdown dominate the changes. I have even configured the system to have no rears to see if 3 speakers (Left Front, Center, Right Front) in Trifield, Music etc. could show a difference toggling “HS”. But still nothing. My Wife, Daughter and her boy friend can’t hear it either. I also went as far as trying a Meridian 508.24 transport.

I would LOVE someone to suggest some music that they confidently think they hear a difference with when in DIRECT mode and toggling “HS”. Some hints of what to listen for (i.e. particular instruments or just the presence etc.). I have not given up. !!!

Now for A/D

I was worried where the 568 itself has no input level adjustment. Those worries faded away quickly. My two analog sources (VCR and Tuner) sound fantastic. I did not do careful A/B testing with the 561, but I was quite confident back when I did do careful testing that the 561 was a bit weak with A/D compared to say the Proceed AVP and even the Lexicon DC-1. My instincts (not the hole in my wallet) tell me the 568 is the first A/D I’ve hear that truly does not degrade even something like a tuner. Even though a tuner is “noisy” it’s just part of what you expect hear. Even the high frequency noise sounds like it should. Sort of like the warmth that crackle an LP has wouldn’t be an LP without it. I recently invested in a large antenna for HDTV which also covers FM, so with that along with the 24 bit A/D FM just sounds spectacular.

How’s it sound?

Spectacular, with the 803 Matrix on the 561 I tended to use Trifield, Trifield and Trifield. With the 561 and the 803 Nautilus I tended to use Direct, Direct, Direct. Now with the 568 and 803 Nautilus my tendency is to use, TriField, Music, Music Logic and Direct (I love them all). On the 561 some movies sounded fantastic but others lacked bass and/or surround (I’ll never know if it was the movies or the 561, since many were rented). So far with the 568 the Bass is definitely better even Fifth element DD now has the bass it should on the DD sound track (on the 561 the DPL sound track had more bass). The 561 often hit the surround levels on the mark and other times they seemed subdued. But the 568 seems more consistently present in the surrounds (but again I never A/B tested this, it could be my wallet speaking or my current choice of movies). Could be a slight change it setup, calibration. Note: I always suspect faults in my tests before faulting equipment. Note that even the slightest change in volume that you play a movie can generate a substantially different experience (see the Dialog Normalization Article for one reason why that might be the case).

Miscellaneous:

It runs as hot as a fire cracker and I have perforated steel sides (Synergy), open rear and open front. Amps are on separate shelves below with the tuner on another shelf acting as a sacrifice insulator. I have a fan kit on order.

No triggers, you need a 562V.2, I use a 12v AC/DC power cube and X-10 power module and IR converter.

Volume Preset when coming out of standby feature missing (available on 561 and 861). Meridian said they plan to solve it some how in a future release.

Relocking bitstream problems with both my sources. Meridian has identified the problem and a current work around is to use version 1.2 firmware. By the way I also tried a second 568 regarding this problem and it also occurred.

Meridian support in general is very good. They don’t always give consistent answers between different sites or technicians though. But they always answer the phone and they are willing to listen to concerns you have. And they do read the “Hitchhikers Guide to Meridian Forum”.

As with the 561 the IR receiver is still weak. My Rotel tuner, completely out of direct IR view, works 100% and the 568 which is “mostly” in direct IR view often misses IR commands if I am sloppy when pointing the remote. I may fix this with a repeater. A “controlling” DSP center speaker would work as well.

Short on analog inputs, but enough for me. Get a 562V.2 if you need more.

No Video switching, no problem for me, my TV has 5 or so inputs and I use component anyway and would always hook my primary source direct.

A friend of mine tried my 561, he liked it a lot but could not deal with the hum. For the record I tried two 561’s. He also tried a 568 and even though the hum was much better he ended up with a Lexicon MC-1 which he says had even less hum. He also liked the more “complete” solution at that price point and the fact he didn’t need a computer or a manual to set it up. I personally would take the “PreSets” and Flash programming of the Meridian stuff in heartbeat. By the way he also really liked how Lexicon more thoroughly documents how there different sound effects work.

I don’t care for the very slight “tic, tic, tic” in the speakers when changing volume.

Summary:

This may sound like a lot of negatives. But believe me the positive things more than make up for it and what it sounds like is the most important and it sounds very good indeed.

Bass in several departments, lower hum, balanced outputs (which sends hum to zero), wonderful A to D, perhaps more refinement in general make it worthwhile for me and do I dare say it, upgrades.

Similar Products Used:

Lexicon DC-1, Meridian 561, Proceed AVP

Sound

Remote, Reliability

This is a update to my earlier review. I just wanted to let people know while I still like my 568, there has been some major problems with the anolog inputs on the unit. It seems like they can't lock on the anolog signal and it freezes up after a while of usage. I don't know if anybody else has experienced this problem with their unit?
I have had my unit replaced two times by meridian so far, and I am on my third unit, I hope this one that I have wont have the problem. anyway I'll keep you all posted on the outcome. By the way I was told by meridian that if you have your unit plugged into a line conditioner could effect the perfomance! especially if it is a panamax 1000, I am rating this product at 3 star on this review due to the fact that I have had two other unit with the same problem, at 6500 I think meridian needs to do a better job at their QA department.

Similar Products Used:

Krell HTS, Theta Casa Nova, Parasound, Sunfire, classe