Hello, does anyone know what the Center Dash Speaker on the Meridian system does? It does not produce any sound when playing music.

Thank You

 

If you have the 400w Meridian system, the speaker is only used for the SOS/roadside assistance function and it can NOT be activated with the stereo. Its a shame because base Meridian systems have always had the center speaker, but only for this function. Now on every JLR product except for the Defender, they now use it as a center channel speaker, but it doesn't have the Meridian Trifield surround sound - that is limited to vehicles with the 700w Meridian Surround system.

 

It stinks because the speaker placement in the Defender creates a poor stage image which could be solved with this speaker that's there and instead is just pointless.

 

Agreed; the midrange speakers are too low in the door panels. The Meridian systems in every other JLR product has the midrange speakers at the top of the door panel, or in the case of the new RR and RRS, the midrange drivers were moved from the front doors to the corners of the dashboard.

 

I did sound engineering for 11 years up until 2014 and mainly live events where acoustics can be challenging from gig to gig. I've come to the conclusion of just adjusting the balance to rearwards to give it something close to a sound stage. And the lack of advance adjustments in equalization is so early 2000's is just as disappointing. That's my two cents.

 

Yes, moving the balance a few ticks rearward does help quite a bit. A full 5 or 7 band equalizer would be ideal, but just a dedicated midrange setting would fix all of my issues with the 400w Meridian. I can live without a center speaker, after all, almost all music is recorded in stereo, but the lack of midrange in the Defender's base Meridian system is my biggest problem with it. Other than that, I think it is pretty decent, but the 825w Meridian Surround in my old D5 is still one of the best in-car audio systems I've ever heard. Only the 35-speaker Meridian Signature in the new RR, the Bowers & Wilkins in Volvos, the Burmester 3D system in the Porsche Panamera and the Naim system in the Bentley Flying Spur are better than my old D5 IMO.