Meridian DSP-8000

The Meridian DSP8000 is the culmination of years of work by Meridian's Bob Stuart and his team. Standing more than 4' high, the '8000 is a truncated pyramid carrying the tweeter and midrange unit sitting atop a gently curved bass bin containing no fewer than six 8" woofers. Three of these plastic-cone, long-throw units are mounted vertically in-line on each side panel, thus reducing vibrational excitation of the enclosure.

The HF unit's voice-coil is silver, and its dome is specified as being formed from a "composite" material, which I assume is an aluminum alloy modified with a surface treatment to increase its stiffness. The dome is surrounded by a short, conical flare and protected with black wire mesh. The midrange unit's transparent cone is fabricated from "a uniquely light and stiff combination of polymers," and there is a stationary "phase plug" instead of a dustcap.

The sealed head assembly is fabricated from curved pressure-laminated plywood, with layers of wood and steel providing both stiffness and damping. The minimal baffle area offered by the narrow-tapered shape is intended to optimize dispersion across a wide listening area. The head unit is supported on the woofer enclosure by three machined feet, with a flying lead terminated in a four-pin XLR providing electrical connection.

The extensively braced bass cabinet is also constructed from panels laminated from wood and steel sheet, and is finished in high-gloss black piano lacquer. Looking at the speaker from the front, all you see is its 6mm-thick black glass panel, this incorporating a window at the top for the dot-matrix LED display and remote-control sensor. The three machined disc feet supporting the speaker can be converted into spikes.

Inside the '8000
The heart of the DSP8000 is its digital circuitry. The rear panel carries two RCA jacks for S/PDIF-formatted datastreams. These handle data with sample rates of up to 96kHz, as well as Meridian's proprietary MHR encrypted format, and each can be assigned one of 12 alphanumeric labels.