Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861/800 Why no 808 or 808.2?

I think it's fair to say that everything Meridian knows about CD replay is in the 808.2, so there is magic everywhere (disc reading, buffering, upsampling, apodizing, resolution enhancement, noise shaping with dither, jitter management, etc, etc). There are an infinite number of possible apodizing implementations, Meridian has engineered the filter that it believes sounds the best to its engineers' well trained ears. (Drool)

I'm with you all the way Ronnie!
Nothing, but nothing, can touch 24/96 DVD-As through fully-capable surround speakers - preferably 8ks.

DVD-A is a dead format, according to Meridian, and that's why it has been dropped from the 808.2, but for pure quality (and accompanying enjoyment) NOTHING can touch it playing through full-range DSPs.

808.2 through D8ks is fantastic but 800 playing DVD-A through 861/D8ks is king.

I see Philip has an 861/808.2/800. Do you run the 808.2 directly into the DSPs and the 800 through the 861?

-Ed

Hi!

I am one of those who bought one of the last first version 808s, because I'd read they played DVD-As too. I wanted the very best CD playback I could get through the D8ks.

I still have the 808, passing it on to my daughter who's crazy about it, and decided that I should get the very best CD playback there is - the 808.2

To answer your question, the 808.2 is connected to the D8ks both through 861 (input D1 on the D8ks) and directly (input D2 on the 8ks).

This gives me the option of listening two-channel stereo directly fed to the D8ks and Trifield through the 861.

The 800 is, of course, connected through the 861.

I was going to buy a 5th D8k but having been to Meridian on HH2 day, I was impressed by the 7200HC and decided that it was good enough for music and necessary for cinema, hence the change of mind.

My only real problem is getting the D8ks back to Meridian to get them brought up to the 8000.2 standard. Should I send all four in one go or pair by pair - but that would mean not having the full system for some time.

To finish, if you ever get a chance, listen to good DVD-As played through a very good system - it is unbelievably good!

Philip
Curiosity: Why are you planning to upgrade your D8k.1's to the D8k.2??

Having spoken to Bob at HH2 (and several other since then) the two main changes made to the D8000.2 are

a) The New Apodizing Filter

b) Speakerlink RJ45 Connectivity

Given that Apodizing is due to be released in a new Firmware version for the D8k.1's and that even by Meridian's own admission, the Balanced Digital Connection that Speakerlink allows for a very marginal improvement (at best), I wonder if this is even a remotely worthwhile change??

In addition, given that you will have the Apodizing already in the 808.2, the extra Apodizing in the D8k.2's will be largely wasted, especially if you also incorporate an HD621 for Bluray (which I would STRONGLY recommend by the way)

Seems like a lot of hassle (and likely cost!!!) for VERY marginal improvements (at best.) Equally, you have the other hassle of Rewiring your entire room!!! While this is not "strictly" necessary with AC11 Speakerlink panel, any marginal benefits which MIGHT comes from the Balanced Digital connection would be lost without recabling with Cat5 or Meridian Speakerlink cable

If you are going to do it, I would send a Pair at a time, for lots of reasons!!! In addition, even if I was tempted, I would likely only Upgrade the Front Pair.

Also, have you checked with Meridian whether they will do the Upgrade by taking back the Rear Speaker Panel ONLY??? They did this in the past when offering 96/24 Upgrades to the D5k's; D6k's and D5500's.

If they did offer this, then it would be FAR less costly than transporting the D8k's from Cyprus to the UK and back again (My Cheque Book just fainted )

Philip
One more thought for you to consider

I realize that your choice is not cost driven, but my best guess is that the Transport costs of 4 by D8k's from Cyprus to the UK and back; combined with Meridian's Upgrade Charges; combined with the cost of Recabling your room is going to be very considerable

The difference in cost between a D8kvc and a D7200hc is �7k (�16k-�9k)

Having been fortunate enough to borrow a friends D7200hc for a week, I can confirm that it is indeed an excellent partner to the D8k's. It sounds great in Trifield as well as Movies etc. However, the overall system performance is still some way behind 3 by D8k's across the front. This is evident in Trifield, but is VERY Pronounced on DVD-A material, where usually the Vocalist is focused thru the Centre channel. I know that you've already tried one of your rear D8k's in the Centre role and liked it. I could not recommend it highly enough

Long story short, if I was spending my money, I would be close to 100% sure that having the D8kvc instead of the D7200hc would be a FAR more noticeable upgrade than changing the D8k.1's to D8k.2's

Just food for thought and hopefully, you don't think I'm interfering because I went thru the same thoughts about upgrading my D8k's

Hi Ron,

As usual, you are right in everything that you say and, again as usual, I agree with you.

However, I have to decide whether I will use the same system for music and for cinema. Most of my time, by far, is spent listening to music. This would mean that 3 x D8ks at the front is the choice without question - I've tried it and it wowed me.

I have even got an architect friend to design me a special home theater room, and we looked at ways of accommodating 3 D8ks at the front both for music and for cinema. Unfortunately, structurally the room is already built as a basement to my home and there are deep strong foundations under it, so any ideas of lifting the centre D8k into a pit for movies and out for music were rejected.
Similarly, there are height limitations to mounting a 7200HC above the screen and moving the centre D8k in and out of position. Basically, there has to be too much speaker moving if we are to have 3 x D8ks and use the system for movies.

All the family loves the system but I have just one vote and my kids four - so I lose everytime I say use another system for movies!

Maybe a rolling stand of some sort for the centre D8k would be the best solution because, as you know, they are back-breakers and we are growing older every day!

You know, of course, that 5xD8ks is best (by far), I am happy that people who perhaps didn't quite believe what we were saying became believers after HH2 day and, no, you are not interfering at all - your opinion is very highly rated here!

Sorry I missed you at HH2 - I asked for you but was told that you were not there.

This is different to what they told me Ronnie!


Already ordered the HD621, waiting for delivery any day now.


As i told you in my previous reply, we are planning a dedicated home theater room, so this is not a big issue.

Regarding the transportation costs to UK from Cyprus, of course you are right and in fact I am extremely unimpressed by Mother because my D8ks were in the factory for upgrades about 18 months ago - not long before apodising came out and not a word from them about it. OK, I understand perhaps they were not ready then but this is the second time this happened with me - the other was buying the 808 not long before the 808.2 came out and then learning that it was not fully upgradeable.

My cheque book has been to the doctor a couple of times and he told me to go easy on it!

But to answer the original question of this thread, the 800 is an extremely good CD player, most people might be hard pushed (I was, at least at the beginning) to hear differences between it and the 808 and it makes a great deal of sense to buy just this one machine for CDs, DVDs and DVD-As. Go ahead and buy it, you'll never regret it.

Hi Philip
Sorry to have missed you at the HH2 day, but I only made there around 12.30pm as I was in a car accident on the way from the airport. Nobody hurt or anything, so nothing to worry about

As regards the Centre D8k, believe me when I say I understand everything you say about the knock on consequences of trying to accommodate a centre D8k!!! When going thru a house extension 4 years ago, I had to make sure I had minimum ceiling heights of 13 feet, in order that I could accomodate a decent size screen above the Centre (the L&R Speakers are outside the screen, so they weren't an isse)

This higher ceiling height had a significant knock-on impact on the rest of the house that I won't go into here, other than to say, I understand all the issues and compromises involved in having a tall vertical centre.

I know you will be happy with the performance after integrating D7200hc, so that is a very worthwhile step forward. However, the main reason I brought up the centre D8k was mainly to illustrate the difference between a "worthwhile" upgrade and one than might be less than satisfying (e.g. D8k.1 to D8k.2)

Having trawled thru all the information available and asking as many Meridian as possible the same questions, I came to the conclusion that there was little point or benefit from pursuing an upgrade to my own D8k's. Simply put, I concluded that the Upgrade would result in

** A Lot of Hassle in getting the speakers back to Meridian

** A Lot of Downtime without the speakers (which is why I decided if I was going to do anything, it was the front three only, thereby using the rear pair while the Upgrade was going on)

** More room disruption while the Room was being recabled with Cat7, as without doing that any marginal benefit from the Balanced Digital connectivity would be lost

** A lot of cost all round to Meridian and Couriers etc.

** And all for a "benefit" which based on discussions with Meridian, I had no confidence I would be able to discern. Even Meridian struggled to articulate what benefits I might get from the D8k upgrade over e.g. using an 808.2 as the Front End CD Source (thereby negating the Apodizing upgrade in the D8k.2's)

The main point of my previous posts was to attempt to pass on my rationale why I simply decided it was not a worthwhile upgrade. Anyway, just one more opinion to throw into the melting pot, out of which you will pull your own personal decision

FWIW, I continue to "hound" Meridian for an Apodizing Upgrade to the 800. This will do little of anything for DVD-A, but would certainly bring it forward for CD replay. Perhaps a little pressure from other 800 owners might help sway them, but I'm not holding my breath

Enjoy your new Theatre, if and when it's up and running, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it


Cheers
Ronnie

Hi Philip

Your wiring is exactly how I would like to connect my 808.2i (for the same reasons), but with only one SPDIF output on the player, it has to be direct to the 8ks or into the 568.2, but not both. Are you using the AC11 box, or does the 808>808.2 upgrade leave both SPDIF in place, rather than the 1xSPDIF and 1xRJ45 of the native 808.2?

Do tell, as I'd love to run a line via the processor for Trifield!

Cheers

George

Hi George,

On HH2 day I asked Richard 'How are we to get the benefits of Speakerlink to all speakers and why should I upgrade all my speakers if the processor does not provide speakerlink connection? Just to play the 808.2 through the front pair?'

He responded: AC11 !

So, I invested in one of these devices!

Unfortunately, the 808.2 didn't just lose DVD-A playback capability but also the AUX SPDIF output, as you rightly say.

The investment in Meridian products never ends!

Cheers!

Ahhh! Yes, thank you, this is now getting clearer to me. So may I humbly suggest that your query "So who here would pay for a lower cost 808i.2 without the CD spinner or analogue section?" should be rephrased to "who here would pay lower cost 808i.2 without the CD spinner or analogue section OPTIMIZED FOR A SERVER INPUT GOING TO A Meridian PROCESSOR?". Or is the answer to that Sooloos as reengineered by Meridian? But I won't drool for a Sooloos because it won't send FLAC to my MP3 players.