Meridian's new generation DSP speaker

Won the lottery? Then have a listen to Meridian's new DSP7200

Got £17,500 for a pair of speakers? Thought so, well Meridian's new DSP7200 may be just the ticket if absolute fidelity is the audio's holy grail. The Cambridgeshire-based hi-fi stalwart chose Bristol's Sound and Vision Show 2008 to unveil the new DSP7200 - a fully active DSP-equipped speaker, which replaces the company's ageing DSP7000.

New formula

The company says it has made a number of improvements to the new speaker over the old model. These include revisions to the internal electronics, new ‘advanced’ software and upgraded drive units and power amplifiers. Meridian says the improvements bring the speaker more in line with the performance of its DSP8000 flagship.

The newcomer is the first of Meridian’s DSP loudspeaker range to include the company’s latest input-board architecture - dubbed ‘SpeakerLink’ - which employs RJ45 (Ethernet) ports for ‘Meridian Comms’ interconnection via CAT-5 cabling.

Like all of the company’s DSP models, the speaker uses on-board amplification – in this case, four 100-watt units – and digital signal processing for crossover filtering and all other signal manipulation.

The amps are balanced-input, high-current designs (employed in the flagship DSP8000). They drive a pair of refined 200mm (eight-inch), long-throw bass units separately housed in their own enclosure.

Completing the driver compliment is a 150mm (six-inch) polymer midrange unit and a 25mm (one-inch) composite-dome tweeter driven by its own amplifier, also within a second completely separate enclosure.