Jordan O'BrienDawsons AV, a UK-based home integration firm, has recently completed a home cinema installation in a Grade II listed farmhouse in Hertfordshire, despite the limited space.
While the Georgian farmhouse is a rather spacious home, when it came to integrating equipment in the Grade II listed building not much room was afforded to the integrators. That’s because the owner of the property wanted the speakers and projector to be as near to invisible as possible.
The home cinema was installed in the annex, where space was challenging, but Dawsons AV came up with a solution – Meridian’s DSP640 and DSP520 in-wall loudspeakers, controlled by a G65 surround sound controller.
“We knew we didn’t have much space to work with and that the client wanted everything hidden away,” says Kevin Dawson of Dawsons AV.
“Meridian’s DSP in-wall speakers were the obvious choice for this project. Everyone knows that you always get fantastic performance with Meridian speakers, but they are also some of the easiest to install on the market and are fantastic space-savers too.”
The traditional setup – amplifiers driving passive loudspeakers – was deemed inefficient and limited sound quality. That’s why Meridian’s DSP loudspeakers were chosen, as they contain a complete, matched audio system with efficient DSP crossovers, multiple DACs and driver-specific amplifiers.
Meridian spent 26 years refining its DSP speakers and says that they offer a higher overall quality, less power use and the performance of a traditional loudspeaker eight times the physical volume.
The DSP640 shares the same visual width and sonic character of the DSP520, making them perfect companions in any Meridian Digital Theatre. In addition to Meridian’s Wide Band driver technology, the DSP640 features dual-long throw woofers for extended bass and dynamic range, designed for today’s high-resolution music and movies.
For visuals Dawsons AV installed a Sony 4K projector and an acoustically invisible screen, which completely conceals the front Meridian in-wall loudspeakers, without compromising sound quality. The 5.1 surround system is completed by two further in-wall loudspeakers at the rear of the room.
As a music aficionado, the client also wanted to bring his extensive music collection to life. This was another factor in Dawsons’ selection of Meridian’s speakers, as the DSP technology provides a peerless audio quality. The client was also interested in future technology, particularly high resolution audio and MQA formatted music, so Dawsons has ensured that the Meridian system is future-proof and can be updated with the latest technology.
One of the client’s passions is watching Blu-Rays of live music performances. To get the best possible experience, Dawsons installed a Meridian HD621, an audio processor that extracts the audio signal from the video and routes it through Meridian’s processing technology. The result is said to be a far superior audio quality and absolute synchronisation of audio and video, so the singer’s lips are never out of time with the sound.
Meridian says that the installation in the home cinema ticked all the client’s boxes: the speakers were discreetly installed out of view, saved on space in an awkwardly sized room and Meridian’s technology has created a high quality audio system that faithfully reproduces the sound of films and live music, each and every time.