Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk

My mother always told me that if you can't say something nice then say nothing... I suspect for once she had a point.

In theory I am the perfect Meridian customer - I now earn well and I want to buy toys of the highest sonic quality at a fair but not extortionate price.

I was raised looking at the 200 series in glossy hi-fi mags and got my first bank loan to fund a 208/M2 set up which I cherished. I was hooked, they were MY brand.

I then invested in a G series set up with M33's which should have worked well - but failed on many counts. Hardware issues, software issues, frequency response etc etc. I sold the lot when Meridian withdrew the direct service support. Ed was wonderful compared with the 19yo spotty geek at the local store who could only recite the Meridian sales blurb verbatim.

So, off I went, firstly to valves, then to Weiss and Vitus and finally to NAD and Quad. Money isn't an issue, performance in my listening environment is. For every Meridian product I was able to find a competitor who was sonically superior and often financially more favourable.

I've just bought a Control 15 unit.. but thanks to the forum I've discovered there are potential sound quality issues that simply shouldn't be there on a Meridian branded product that costs nearly �5000.

Yes, �5000 - that's a shed load of cash!

It will be compared against a Slim Devices Transporter (2006 vintage) that's tablet controlled... isn't technology marvellous in the right hands!!

If Logitech can make this possible alongside kick ass budget Boom boxes and jog wheel colour screen remotes for next to nothing prices how can you justify the "prestige" of the Meridian price tag?

It's taken days of surfing to understand that the HP Touchpad app isn't a Sooloos system controller. The question I want answering from the marketing people at M is why not? I want the full Sooloos interface on a dogs dangly touchpad to control my system - why can't I buy that?

Why can't the multi-channel fans stream 5.1 content? Why can't Meridian match an Oppo disk player? Why were NAD the ones responsible for the M2 digital amp technology and not Meridian, one of the professed digital experts?

Why can't the 808.2 ultimate CD player owners upgrade to 808.3? Ultimate? Can you understand why customers are scared to invest when they get shafted and hung out to dry? A Control:10 upgrade to a Control 15 etc...

What exactly is everyone doing at HQ? Guys, justify your salaries - where on earth is the creative thinking? Even Sooloos, the first ground breaking component for years was invented by people outside of Meridian and bought in-house.

Build me a MS600 with a built in (NAS) RAID harddives with an embedded control program that I can operate remotely from a wireless touchpad with the full Sooloos "focus and swim" experience. �2500? �3000 tops?

Then again you may actually sell them to real customers, heaven forbid... I do appreciate that the general public are a pain to deal with whilst corporate clients offer higher profit margins and prestige but what I object to is taking our hard earned cash and failing to deliver.

Think domestic - lets have wireless DSP speakers and wireless components and banish the miles of Cat %/6 cabling for good (it is 2011 after all) we've got dual band N nowadays, is it really so complicated? Even poach a guy from Linksys and ask him to build a seven channel dedicated N band Meridian system wireless router! I'm sure I could even invent a green environmental reason to do it!

None of the above is even close to rocket science, it can all be built today and sold tomorrow. I'm sure if it wasn't for the huge technical knowledge of a few forum members then the Meridian brand would have gone tits up in the domestic market years ago.

Bah humbug... Time for a cuppa - feel better now - thanks Hitch hikers!!

Ahh yes, I'd forgot, time to don the flame proof coveralls and hard hat - but don't forget the risk assessment, I'm delicate you know... xxxx

Thanks! You just made my day.
I was feeling not so great today, but reading from a fellow-HH that you feel likewise (totally different subject, though), is sort of comforting . Funny how that works.

The C15 sounds great, so I don't think it is fair to say there are sound quality issues with it.
What you have become aware of is that it can be improved upon but adding a MS600 (or using an ID40 card)
It is like all HiFi esp. High-End equipment a case of diminishing returns.
Did you expect the C15 to sound as good as 808.3 which is double the price?
I think circa 5K is a lot for the C15 as well but hey I bought one too.

It took us a while to work that out as well, it's not very clear at all. I think Meridian will improve the iTouch app, I think they have to, but like all thinks from Meridian we will have to wait a while for it.

I know, it would open up another sales stream for M. At the HH2 open day at M-HQ I (and others) ask about 5.1 support an was told "we can't comment, but we are not stupid".

Economy of scale I guess, I was hoping for a 800D Bluray upgrade, but I don�t think it will ever happen. However, M did produce the excellent HD621 that lets any from 568.2MM to a 861v6 hook up a BD player.

Wireless to processor should be fine, wireless to DSPs would bring a whole heap of inter channel timing issues that would be difficult in the extreme to solve with LAN technology.

Regards,
Carl

"Did you expect the C15 to sound as good as 808.3 which is double the price?"

Well, why not? The 808.3 is in fact a CD player, processor and preamp with high quality analogue output stages and associated power supplies so their cost must be factored in too... good analogue costs money - factor in the diminishing returns you mentioned and I should be about 98% there...

I'm concerned about the "significant" jump in quality that some have mentioned on the forums - it sounds like more than the 2% difference I had in mind and was prepared to concede.

My current system punches well beyond its price point - it already sounds superb using, for example, the Chesky Ultimate Demo CD as a reference point. There isn't room for huge improvement, the system is at a level of very subtle differences which are a matter of taste and interpretation rather than veils being lifted etc. Both the NAD M2 and the Quads are know for their ruthless transparency.

Listening to the various source options will be interesting - I have the Vaio via optical, a Squeezebox Touch (mini server) and a Transporter for comparison and by using the Chesky Ultimate Demo disk I should be able to do a real time A/B/C/D comparison blindfolded (if the Mrs obliges and doesn't get other ideas..)

In terms of the C15 price point, it doesn't compare at all favourably with the latest touch screen 16:9 HP all in one computers which retail around �900...

Sure, there's now a new dedicated Meridian output card (add �1k) and a unique software interface for which I'm sure Windows clones are being worked on as we speak...

Bitching aside, I bought one... My guests will certainly enjoy the focused swimming and meanwhile I'm hoping the net may provide some of the answers to extracting all of the performance the unit should potentially be capable of...

As soon as a decent Sooloos touchpad control app appears then it may be time to rethink the system... this is a hobby after all

I am with you Dpaws. I am a huge Meridian fan but their prices and technology of late have left me.......


I do love the exorbitantly priced DSP8Ks though, every day.

I wonder if there is a relation between these products and Sooloos's otherwise inexplicable jumping into bed with HP's Touchpad? Pure speculation...

@DPaws
You make some interesting points. Sorry I haven't time to respond in detail.
Just two quick ones

You know that the Sooloos tablet choice is iPad don't you?

Why did you buy the C15 with so much to rant about? Many of us have concerns about various issues with HQ and strategy and it actually slows or prevents purchases in many cases. You did demo it first and decided it was worth buying ?

Cheers

When the iPad app gets the same full featured GUI as the C15, I might even buy into Sooloos! And that would be very exceptional for me (long time and very satisfied SqueezeBox user). I refuse to buy a C15, much too expensive and much too clunky.

Could somebody please explain if the app isn't a controller, what does it do?


I empathise with a lot of what you say, especially regarding wireless connectivity which should at least be an inbuilt option with Sooloos (but not the speakers). I have to say unless the system architecture changes to one storage point wirelessly serving several controllers, I�ll probably never consider Sooloos a serious option to replace my current Transporter/Sbox system. But that�s just me.

Its a Sooloos branded application on the HP tablet that works as the user interface for music stored on the tablet.

"You know that the Sooloos tablet choice is iPad don't you?"

There is a degree of sweet irony about their choice - over priced, over hyped and under performing... ?!?

The C15 experiment has been slowly simmering for a while, I've always loved the software interface but I refused to buy in when the entry point was too closer �10k with the extortionate cost of the associated storage.

It's been over four years of waiting so it's hardly a rush to the store... we'll see how it turns out. There's been a load of work going on over in Squeezebox land extracting the potential from a Touch and I'm sure that there are many common areas between the two products.

Unfortunately Logitech lost the high end market initiative when Sean Adams left. Like many others I've been waiting for a "Mk2 Transporter" for a while and am still surprised that no one has made a �3k all in one box that is Squeeze network compatible. Now if Meridian were really on the ball...

The success of the Squeezebox has come from its open source software and a dedicated forum of demanding followers and technically competent tweakers. The concept of multi room installations for all the family became hard reality with the excellent Boombox at �250 a zone!

I thought Meridian were going to follow the example with a Sooloos zoned F80 but they missed the point completely IMHO

The coincidence that HP should be playing with Sooloos software is mouthwatering. Their current project seems a little strange and somewhat wasted on a 32GB capacity device, not that I'd dare to speculate...

If HQ rumour remotely resembled reality then the company may earn some respect.

If I was sitting in the big chair I'd want to know why all these things aren't reality already. Give the post graduates projects with production deadlines, let's start achieving the sales potential!

Come on Mr Bob - kick some ass!!!

...oh and before it gets to the drawing board lets have it available as a backwards compatible motherboard upgrade for the loyal existing F80 owners.

As if....