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New from Meridian here at CES 2012 is the distinctly bullet-shaped M6 digital active loudspeaker, a 92cm-tall cylindicral floorstander due to go on sale next month at £4500 a pair.
The company says that the M6 'delivers true Meridian loudspeaker performance and remains faithful to Meridian’s original design principles by achieving this in a form that complements living space'.
Using Meridian digital signal processing and active technology, the speaker is claimed to create a performance like that of a conventional speaker of eight times its physical volume.
The speaker uses a single 8.5cm aluminium-cone wideband drive unit powered by a 100W wide-range super-linear low-feedback amplifier, this covering frequencies down to 200Hz.
At that point the downward-firing, relfex-port-tuned 14cm aluminium cone bass driver, powered by a 150W Class D amp rolls in.
Meridian says this bass design 'not only allows M6 its characteristic round footprint, but also delivers floor-loaded bass which is extremely well coupled with the room.
'This space saving design also helps ensure that M6 Loudspeakers deliver outstanding sound wherever they are placed in the room.'
The enclosures, which taper from 30cm at the base to just 6.6cm at the top, are formed from a barium-doped resin.
This was developed by Meridian designer Allen Boothroyd, and based on material created for the compay's tabletop F80 system.
'The material is uniquely heavy and rigid, yet at the same time can be moulded into a complex form that would be impossible to achieve using traditional loudspeaker materials.
'Acoustically inert, the enclosure provides separate, isolated housings for the wide-range and the low-frequency drivers. Internally the enclosure supports bracing for even greater stiffness, and a tuned porting system that further extends the loudspeaker’s low-frequency performance.'
Under the aluminium cap at the top is a diffused 360 degree light halo, which glows soft white when the speaker is in use, and soft blue in standby.
Connection to the speaker is via Meridian's SpeakerLink system, for example from one of the company's Audio Core units, which will give control of bass, treble, balance, boundary gain compensation and so on.