Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Is 800 DVD life over?

Hi all,

I am really sorry if this has been posted but searches didn't find it and I have not been here in many years (because I haven't had any issues or upgrades on my system).

I was going to upgrade my 800DVD to Bluray and was shocked to find out it wasn't an option.

Is anyone even able to say, if or not the 800 has reached it's end of life and is only good for musical playback now after upgrading to a Bluray theater?

Thanks and happy to be back on my favorite forum (I used to spend every day here hahaha)!

Maestro, Meridian elected not to invest in building a Blu-compatible 800 upgrade.... they did however build the HD621 which is 6 HDMI switcher that extracts the Audio the from the HDMI signal and forwards it to the processor and sends the video straight to the video processor or the TV. However, the HD621 requires as a minimum 861v3 (861v4 recommended as there has been apodizing firmware and a new power supply released with a five year warranty as an option).

Meridian processors still cannot decode HD TrueHD or DTS HDMA so your Bluray or whatever box has to decode it to LPCM. A lot of HitchHikers buy the HD621 and the Oppo spinner and/or Dune to stream their films.

The 800 still is a very fine DVD spinner but many of us now use Sooloos for audio/CD/2 channel.

If M produced a rebadged Oppo with MHR hi-res audio output (on SPDIF and MMHR like HD621), which sounded even better than the 800v4 on SACD and DVD-A material, I'd throw a LOT of money at them.

Really, a LOT.

As a long-term 800 owner who upgraded at all the stages from v1 thru to v4 and who still loves what the 800 can do with CD's, but most particularly they way it performs with high res audio content from DVD-V's and DVD-A's, I was disappointed in Meridian's decision not to upgrade the 800.

But I think that time has shown that they made the right choice.

What High Res Content is available now on silver disc that was not available 3-5 years ago? The answer is very, very little that is worthwhile.

Any advances that have been made in making High Res content available has been via Downloads, so even if a Bluray / Meridian Upgraded Oppo were available, I'm not sure what use it would be in today's world (and FWIW, Bob Stuart will never have a Meridian player that plays SACD's).

And I really don't think that Meridian could have improved on the 1080p/24 Video Output from the Oppo's.

IMHO, they made the right choice.

+1
I wish Meridian would take an Oppo OEM unit, rip out all the analog stages, upgrade the power supply and integrate the HD621 so that you'd have a single box universal transport and HDMI audio processor.

Are you kidding? While Sony has abandoned the SACD format, audiophile labels like Mobile Fidelity, Audio Fidelity and Analogue Productions continue to churn out high quality reissues on SACD. If anything, there are more SACDs being made now than there were 5 years ago.

In addition, the Blu-Ray audio disc format appears to be picking up steam, with Universal announcing several titles this fall. Neil Young, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones have already released Blu-Ray audio titles.

It's not just Audiophile labels either. In classical music there are many SACD releases. I just received my 100 copies of my most recent SACD release, for example...

But back to the hardware, while I'm sure everything Ronnie says is true, I still wish for an Ayre DX-5 competitor from Meridian.

Neither Meridian nor Bob Stuart (and other notable luminaries) consider SACD to be "High Res" and thus Meridian will never release a player capable of SACD........no point in arguing with me, argue with him.......and you won't win him over by the way!!!

Can you tell me SPECIFICALLY how these Bluray Audio releases differ from the versions long available on DVD-A or the 24/96 & 24/192 versions from HD_Tracks et al?? What would a User gain from re-buying these releases of long available material??

Thanks so much for the information. I will admit, I was a little heart broken that they didn't, even if they do/did have good reason.

I guess I thought I would be upgrading this all my life, buy the best and go out with the best .

I am going to have to re-think this whole setup since my 861 won't easily accept a connection (except old fashion single ended coax) from my Bluray player. I just spoke to my dealer and he says my 861 cannot be upgraded but he will try to get me a deal through Meridian for another unit.

I have some big decisions to make and research to do. I remember how long it took to make all this happen before, but the return of investment was spectacular.

Well, for starters, they're on a disc. Some of us still like to be able to hold music in our hands.

Also, some of the recent Blu-Ray audio and DVD-A releases contain 5.1 surround mixes that, as far as I know, aren't available via download. Steve Wilson has been busy creating 5.1 surround mixes of classic albums by Jethro Tull, Yes, King Crimson, and most recently XTC which have been reissued on either Blu-Ray or DVD-A (or, in some cases, both).

None of the really important classical DVD-A releases are available as surround mix downloads - in fact none of the 30 or so that I consider the only ones worth having. Only as stereo.

Which is not to say M should make machines based on 30 discs. It's just a fact.

Shame the 800 didn't get an apodizing update though.