WEBVTT

00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:06.240
have you ever wondered what would happen if you rounded up a bunch of obsessive

00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:10.880
audio geeks and then locked them in a building with only the instructions to

00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:14.960
build whatever you want and don't come out till you're done well wonder no

00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:19.119
further because lg electronics graciously sponsored our trip all the

00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:23.680
way to beautiful great britain to tour the r d and production facility of

00:00:21.520 --> 00:00:26.400
world-renowned speaker manufacturer meridian

00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:33.120
and this is going to be a good one because while

00:00:28.720 --> 00:00:35.920
on the surface meridian's flagship 100

00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:41.200
000 speakers here couldn't be more different from the lg xboom go bluetooth

00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:46.960
speaker that i'm holding they have a lot more in common than meets the eye so

00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:50.399
let's go have a look shall we oh great

00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:54.079
this video is brought to you by lg's xboom go bluetooth speaker lineup check

00:00:52.559 --> 00:00:57.399
out the special offer linked in the video description

00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:09.920
so during development they worked closely with meridian and not just on

00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:14.000
the voicing of the already finished product

00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:17.840
like you'd see in many other co-developed audio products meridian was

00:01:16.720 --> 00:01:23.200
involved in developing the specifications of the drivers and the

00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:25.280
passive radiators that lg brands as dual

00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:30.560
action base they were involved in the creation of both the vocal and bass

00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:35.040
enhancing profiles and they even helped with the physical design of the back

00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:39.680
cabinet to enhance sound quality one really cool sort of meridian special

00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:44.640
sauce feature is actually on the pk3 here and what it does is it applies

00:01:41.759 --> 00:01:49.119
image elevation to raise the perceived source of the sound slightly since it's

00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:54.880
so common for people to plunk their bluetooth speakers on a table next to

00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:56.159
them or by the pool side or whatever

00:01:54.880 --> 00:02:00.719
so bottom line take away from this tour is

00:01:58.479 --> 00:02:04.399
an xboom go gonna sound like the speakers that we auditioned when we

00:02:02.399 --> 00:02:08.720
walked in the door no of course not

00:02:06.479 --> 00:02:13.120
don't be stupid but the folks here at meridian are still

00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:19.520
proud to take credit for bringing better sound quality to the rest of us as well

00:02:16.239 --> 00:02:21.599
who can't afford six-figure speakers

00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:25.200
except for one thing right the the RGB lighting they actually didn't want any

00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:28.800
of the credit for that no pride uh they were very clear that's on lg but you

00:02:27.440 --> 00:02:32.800
know what whatever i think it's cool we'll start with a

00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:39.120
little bit of history when meridian launched their first product in 1977

00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:43.840
powered loudspeakers so ones with the electronics built into them were only

00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:48.959
available in the professional world but while these were expensive at around

00:02:45.760 --> 00:02:51.360
2000 pounds their strategy of using

00:02:48.959 --> 00:02:57.040
dedicated amplifiers for each driver unit allowed them to split the incoming

00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:59.920
signal before amplification avoiding

00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:04.400
some of the messiness of a crossover and actually when the folks here hooked

00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:08.959
these puppies up to some spotify they were shocked at how well they've

00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:14.159
stood the test of time so then you fast forward i don't know what is

00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:19.200
this 40 some odd years and the vast majority of consumer audio devices now

00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:24.159
are highly integrated containing not just drivers and amplifiers but even

00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:28.959
advanced digital sound processors that can decode high bit rate streams like

00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:34.239
bluetooth with optics hd like this guy and dramatically improve performance

00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:36.480
where cost or physical size constraints

00:03:34.239 --> 00:03:40.959
had previously made decent sounding audio simply impossible

00:03:38.799 --> 00:03:44.640
but this is fun it turns out meridian knows a thing or two about that as well

00:03:42.799 --> 00:03:50.959
have you guys ever heard of dolby true hd well long story but it's a method of

00:03:48.720 --> 00:03:54.799
compressing high-resolution blu-ray audio losslessly that was originally

00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:59.360
called meridian lossless packing

00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:02.959
and it was invented right here now the vast majority of product

00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:06.560
development is done in software these days but

00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:11.280
when push comes to shove you do have to build one and actually listen to it

00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:16.639
eventually so to that end they built what they call the inner sanctum

00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:21.919
including this anechoic chamber which is used in combination with more realistic

00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:26.960
listening scenarios to ensure that every product that they build here meets the

00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:31.759
standards of a group of golden ears who work together to evaluate how closely

00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:36.320
the product represents the original recording honestly speaking though for

00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:41.360
me it wasn't the admittedly very nice good job you guys uh graphics on the

00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:46.000
wall here that blew me away it was the production floor now i've seen a good

00:04:43.840 --> 00:04:49.199
number of manufacturing facilities but this one

00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:53.680
is completely unlike any that i've encountered for one thing it's

00:04:51.520 --> 00:04:56.400
practically a ghost town in here and it's not like they cleared it out for me

00:04:55.360 --> 00:05:00.639
or anything that's apparently just the way that they

00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:05.440
work they've got far more build stations and testing

00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:10.240
stations than they do people to work at them which they say is perfect for the

00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:13.039
small batches that they produce for their worldwide dealer network

00:05:12.320 --> 00:05:17.600
so without further ado then shall we follow

00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:20.000
the journey of a loudspeaker all the way through

00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:25.280
well you don't really have a choice that's what we're doing let's go

00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:27.919
first up while they source bare pcbs

00:05:25.280 --> 00:05:33.520
from an outside manufacturer a number of years ago meridian invested in their own

00:05:30.479 --> 00:05:35.759
smt line which means that whether it's

00:05:33.520 --> 00:05:38.400
for in-house prototyping for brand partnerships like the one they have with

00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:43.759
lg or as we're about to see right now

00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:49.919
retail product manufacturing they can build their own boards in-house

00:05:47.039 --> 00:05:54.080
so first up then the board goes into this machine where it gets a coating of

00:05:52.400 --> 00:06:00.080
this gray kind of oozy solder paste that actually

00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:05.600
gets squeezed through these holes in the aluminum template so that it ends up on

00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:10.560
all of the contact pads on our bare printed circuit board then our board

00:06:07.919 --> 00:06:15.600
goes into a pick and place machine that automatically places the smaller board

00:06:13.039 --> 00:06:21.120
components using computer vision to ensure that there are no obvious defects

00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:24.880
so then from there it goes into a second pick and place machine that handles the

00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:28.639
larger components so you can see those are on the spools

00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:33.840
right here but we're actually going to stop for a moment here and draw your

00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:36.960
attention to this blundell production

00:06:33.840 --> 00:06:37.919
equipment cabinet here so this is pretty

00:06:36.960 --> 00:06:43.360
cool some of the dsp and compute chips

00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:48.560
actually need to be stored under specific environmental conditions or

00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:53.360
they can absorb moisture from the surrounding air which can turn into a

00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:58.400
steam pocket during the final stage of production and cause damage

00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:03.680
the more you know right which i guess brings us perfectly to the

00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:05.199
final stage the pizza oven so at this

00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:11.039
point here everything on that board is actually

00:07:07.840 --> 00:07:12.880
only held in place by the stickiness of

00:07:11.039 --> 00:07:16.479
the solder paste now of course i was being a little

00:07:14.960 --> 00:07:22.000
facetious before uh however much this does actually bear

00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:26.960
a resemblance to a pizza oven it's of course a bit more complicated than that

00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:31.360
and in fact this one here can handle both traditional surface mounts you know

00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:37.520
with the little legs around the outside of the chip and bga chips which have all

00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:41.759
the solder pads on the bottom fun fact by the way when you're

00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:44.720
designing a double-sided board you have to account for running it through the

00:07:43.280 --> 00:07:48.479
oven twice so you don't want to put anything too

00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:53.039
heavy on the bottom or it's all going to fall off when the solder remelts

00:07:51.280 --> 00:07:57.360
so here at the other end out comes our finished board it sits and cools for a

00:07:55.280 --> 00:08:01.360
little bit then gets carried over to this station

00:07:58.479 --> 00:08:06.479
where it's scanned by a combination of optical recognition software and

00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:10.000
real live human intervention how about that

00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:15.440
now you might have noticed though in that close-up before that there's still

00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:16.720
a lot of contact pads that are empty on

00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:22.160
our board here well believe it or not a shocking amount

00:08:19.599 --> 00:08:27.360
of the soldering work here at meridian is still done by hand so here we are at

00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:31.199
one of those stations um unfortunately it's not running right now i did say

00:08:29.440 --> 00:08:35.839
it's kind of ghost town in here but you'll have to imagine it because this

00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:38.240
is a really old machine but a cool one

00:08:35.839 --> 00:08:43.200
nonetheless so what you do is you press this button right here and then pretty

00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:47.839
much there's these drawers that are built into the entire table that come

00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:52.720
out you take out the component and then there's a lens up here that focuses like

00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:58.160
a red beam onto where you place the component then you go ahead and press

00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:02.080
the next button you grab the next one and put that onto your board you build

00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:05.839
the whole thing manually like that crazy right

00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:10.240
then you take your finish board and walk over

00:09:06.839 --> 00:09:12.320
here this little guy's lots of fun

00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:16.880
so if you've ever seen a surface mount component here's a capacitor they've

00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:19.839
actually got super long leads on them and this allows them to be mounted in

00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:23.680
multiple ways like you could kind of bend them like this and then lay them

00:09:21.680 --> 00:09:28.320
over on the side but they don't want that they want it stuck through and then

00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:32.560
they want as little excess on the back of the board as possible so this little

00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:37.040
guy right here kind of guillotines off the back of the leads so

00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:40.720
that they're as flush as possible to the back of the board so they don't short

00:09:38.880 --> 00:09:45.440
out on anything oh i think we're done

00:09:42.640 --> 00:09:47.839
now we're ready for the solder wave it's apparently actually what they call

00:09:46.800 --> 00:09:52.880
it so the board goes along this conveyor

00:09:50.959 --> 00:09:56.399
where it gets blasted with flux and preheated then it pretty much passes

00:09:55.279 --> 00:10:02.080
over this pool of molten solder that seeps up into the

00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.600
joints but like gross

00:10:03.680 --> 00:10:10.320
look at this thing it's got shmoo all over the top of the solder pool we don't

00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:16.800
want that anywhere near our components well that is where the wave comes in so

00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:23.040
it grabs clean solder from the bottom of the pool and then it runs the bottom of

00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:28.320
our board over that kind of well wave as it passes by

00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:31.200
well no not actually cool at all it's like really hot actually kind of

00:10:29.839 --> 00:10:35.600
dangerous but but like neat

00:10:32.959 --> 00:10:41.519
so this machine here is called the flying probe

00:10:37.839 --> 00:10:43.600
and given britain's long and colorful

00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:47.920
history of creative torture devices i wouldn't blame you for thinking that

00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:52.560
that sounds a lot worse than it is but basically

00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:55.519
it's kind of like a cnc multimeter

00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:59.120
it's got four sharp probes that measure every single resistor and capacitor and

00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:03.519
then that spit out an error if a measurement

00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:07.839
doesn't match the expected value so you can actually see this readout

00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:12.079
here where it's going around and poking and prodding at all the solder points to

00:11:09.839 --> 00:11:18.160
make sure that everything is a-okay it actually takes up to 13 minutes for

00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:21.360
this thing to test a single board which

00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:23.360
i guess in very small volumes is fine

00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:29.120
but in mass production this would be suicide that's where this

00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.440
tester comes in it uses a template and

00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:37.440
then a whole bunch of relays that are in the machine in the back here instead of

00:11:33.920 --> 00:11:40.480
a cnc probulator to do that same job in

00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:43.920
about 20 seconds the only drawback is

00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:46.079
that these templates cost a lot and they

00:11:43.920 --> 00:11:50.880
take weeks to make why does it take so long you might ask

00:11:47.839 --> 00:11:52.720
well because aside from creating all

00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:57.040
these little probes here in the front that just all stick into the back of the

00:11:54.480 --> 00:12:01.040
board at the same time you've also got to oh

00:11:59.040 --> 00:12:05.600
wire it up at the back and the worst part is that if you change

00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:09.680
one thing about the design of the board you got to make this all over again so

00:12:07.920 --> 00:12:15.839
you only do one of these when you are serious about doing larger runs

00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:20.480
so then every single board that comes through here goes through one of these

00:12:17.920 --> 00:12:23.440
machines which seems kind of inefficient doesn't it

00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:26.480
but i guess that's that's what kind of stands out about the

00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:30.480
culture here no one i've seen appears to be in any

00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:34.240
sort of hurry to like meet a quota

00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:37.920
they're just trying to build the best damn thing and

00:12:35.920 --> 00:12:42.079
if you appreciate that and you've got deep pockets

00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:45.440
sick good for you otherwise i don't know i guess

00:12:43.040 --> 00:12:50.800
go buy something else by this stage our board is very unlikely to

00:12:48.160 --> 00:12:56.639
blow up if we plug it in so it moves either as a raw board a half

00:12:53.680 --> 00:13:02.079
built product a finished product or some combination of the three into human

00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:07.519
testing land here that is to say the land where humans test it not the

00:13:03.920 --> 00:13:10.240
land where humans get tested

00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:15.040
anyway meridian uses a combination of real av products and signal generators

00:13:12.959 --> 00:13:19.680
some of which were actually designed and built right here to ensure that every

00:13:17.680 --> 00:13:24.560
input and output works the way that the user would expect before moving the

00:13:21.920 --> 00:13:29.440
product to the soak area over here where it gets burned in for hours

00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:34.560
all of that is just the electronics though now let's take a look at

00:13:32.880 --> 00:13:40.320
the cabinets now i'm gonna put that down

00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:43.519
meridian is known for their dsp tech but

00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:45.519
signal processing is not magic and good

00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:48.800
physical engineering principles matter too so

00:13:47.040 --> 00:13:53.440
you think those speakers that we saw out there are just made of mdf or whatever

00:13:51.839 --> 00:13:58.560
think again these high-end units are actually

00:13:55.279 --> 00:14:01.279
constructed from three layers of plywood

00:13:58.560 --> 00:14:07.920
with an additional layer of aluminium as well as this weird kind of glue

00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:10.880
resin stuff along with a whack of

00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:16.720
internal bracing actually this is cool even the outer glossy coating apparently

00:14:13.760 --> 00:14:22.480
contributes to deadening the sound waves within the cabinet as completely as

00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:23.440
possible so they won't color the sound

00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:29.279
and i will say this if nothing else it makes

00:14:27.040 --> 00:14:34.639
for a very impressive demo when they are literally shaking the ceiling tiles of

00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:37.120
their showcase room with a 5p coin

00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:42.880
balanced on its side sitting directly on top of the speaker finally every unit

00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:48.079
gets bolted together and the whole thing gets tested here by an engineer to

00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:53.279
ensure that there's no distortion no buzzes or rattles or anything like that

00:14:50.959 --> 00:14:57.440
from the cabinet anything loose then they run a computer check that can

00:14:55.279 --> 00:15:00.720
be overlaid with a reference frequency response curve to ensure that it matches

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:06.959
the golden model that they've got stored away somewhere honestly it's rare to see

00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:10.959
anything made with this kind of enthusiast level care and attention

00:15:08.880 --> 00:15:16.320
these days lg is running a promotion right now on all three xboom go models

00:15:13.839 --> 00:15:21.120
their super compact pk3 with full submersion water resistance their pk5

00:15:18.959 --> 00:15:25.760
which features both clear vocal and enhanced bass profiles and up to 18

00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:31.519
hours of battery life and their flagship pk7 with dual tweeters and up to 22

00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:37.680
hours of battery life go check out the link to the xboom go pk3 pk5 and pk7 in

00:15:36.160 --> 00:15:42.480
the video description so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video well you can hit

00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:45.120
that button but if you liked it hit like get subscribed or maybe consider

00:15:43.839 --> 00:15:48.480
checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link below also down

00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:54.240
there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community

00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.240
forum which you should totally join