The Meridian Sound
Contents
The Meridian DSP5200 SE is a speaker system with a relaxed character. In neutral mode, the DSP5200 SE comes across as nicely layed-back in our listening room. Especially compared to the Focals (Sopra No1), this is a particularly relaxed listening experience. However, don’t confuse this with boring, because it definitely isn’t. These active guys can provide a party when needed. However, it’s not very British to put yourself in the foreground. And these DSP5200 SEs don’t do that. Unless you tune them that way, of course.
Balance
The upper-end feels a touch rounded and polished in the standard configuration. It is completely free of grain with which Meridian also shows that Beryllium does not equate to sharp or overly fresh. As does Focal with the Sopra and to a greater extent, Kanta (too round for your author’s taste) for that matter. It’s just how the manufacturer tunes it and Meridian has overwhelmingly opted for a milder tuning. Which is nice, because no one is waiting for a sharp treble.
The midrange of the Meridian DSP5200 SE is relaxed but insightful and offers enough detail to follow everything well. Vocals are given nice space, are well distinguished and also stand very firmly in the room. By the way, also a strength of this system: the enormously stable stereo image! We can point everything out without any difficulty; a strength of a solid high-end system.
If we then consider that this costs 14,500 Euros, it is quite special. OK: it still needs a source. But good: this replaces 90 percent of a total system.
Finally, the bass. We are a bit jealous of that. What is it with active systems and – mostly – insanely good bass. Also these Meridians go much deeper than you would think. And that with 75 watts for the bass drivers, no audible compression or distortion and without any effort. Many a floorstander can not do that. Simple as that. The result of this mix of relaxed playback without any kind of sharpness is that everything just sounds good. From rock and metal to electronic music and even classical.
If we have to find one word that describes this speaker then it is an all-rounder.
I have been enjoying these speakers since 2017, and have yet to find their limit with every improvement made to a source for the AES/EBU (Speakerlink) inputs. My most recent successful experiments are dual (cascaded) AudioPhool Meraki network switches feeding a RPi4 running audiolinux with Shunyata and iancanada power.