Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems GLAD about my SE speaker repair; but SAD about...

When I first heard the 50th Anniversary Remix of Abbey Road, McCartney's bass was distorted coming from the right front speaker when he hit certain notes, so I listened to other acoustic double bass recordings to see if something was going on with my DSP5200SE speakers.

Yes, that same distortion showed up on various albums, including "The Art Of Conversation" recording by Kenny Barron and Dave Holland, but not through my Audeze headphones or 568.2mm/DSP5000.2 system. Bummer! I then contacted my dealer and returned the middle driver for replacement, thinking that the internal electronics would not fail over such a narrow band of frequencies like what I was hearing, and that the driver was probably at fault.

Sure enough, when I soldered in the new SEAS replacement speaker the issue was resolved. -Very GLAD to enjoy the wonderful sound of Meridian Special Edition purchased two years ago (within warranty!) after owning so many M products mostly without problems since the mid-1980's.

SAD, though, when I consider that I had to tear a fairly new speaker apart myself because there is no dealer offering repairs anywhere within hundreds of miles from my home in New Mexico. If you factor out the less-than-full-service home security and in-wall folks, it's even further.

And, rather than a celebration of the new -even better!- state-of-the-art hifi products being introduced by Meridian, this forum seems to be more and more focused on how to patch legacy gear from their glory days to hopefully squeeze out a few more years of pleasure before throwing in the towel. Thank God my driver was still available!

Do my fellow HitchHikers see a renaissance on the horizon? -Or is my pessimism a realistic recognition of the SAD decline from an industry leader to a disappearing niche?

Meridian used to be a healthy ecosystem with wealthy audiophiles buying unsurpassed processors and speakers at the top end, then many layers of second-. third-, etc, -hand buyers (with me at the bottom).

Now the top-end isn't Meridian, it's Trinnov. An 861 can't even decode a typical 7.1 blu-ray track from 2010, so forget about 16 speaker set-ups with Dolby Atmos. They gave up a decade ago, but it didn't matter because 7.1 was as good as it got and something else could decode it. But now 7 speakers doesn't cut it. Doesn't matter if something else can decode the Atmos: an 861v8 can only do 7.1 channels. And sure, the stereo systems aren't affected by this, but the dealers are.

Sure, one could say that the Trinnov simply takes the place of the 861v8, an 861v10 if you will. But the money and the loyalty (and the easy of connection) isn't there.

It's good for me, though, because I can afford an 861v6 now! (And nice bonus, it turned out to be a v8!) But it's not great for the ecosystem.

I’ve owned Meridian since the early 1990s starting with a 565 and 5000 speakers. It was a very nice starting system. I upgraded over the years to 568 and 5500s to eventually the 861v2 then v3,4,6 and finally v8. Same for my speakers finally getting to the 8000s then SE upgrade.
I am not bragging as I consider myself blessed to be able to afford to do the upgrades ( also it has been a slow process over 20 plus years mostly trading in to get dealer demos or slightly used products etc -a lot of work went into it to get great deals ).
Like most of you I am a DIYer and learned to set up and install everything myself.
Meridian back in the day had incredible support where I could call them and get instant help on the phone.
Sadly those days are gone.
I read in between the lines over a year ago realizing there wouldn’t be an 861v10 and traded my 861 in for the Trinnov.
The Trinnov is complex and the days of setting it up all by myself are over for me ( the 861 was easy in comparison) - that is the sad part BUT Trinnov as a company is tremendous and extremely helpful.
Trinnov reminds me of the old Meridian were I can call or email support and they answer almost immediately and troubleshoot the problem until it’s taken care of. Their support is second to none! Not only that but they continue to update their product to stay ahead of everyone else ( recent DTS X Pro release for example- FOC firmware update!)
Lumagen on the video side also has great support and also continues to improve their processor too.
Meridian products are still excellent ( that is why I still own them ) but the support from the company is not what it used to be.
The only saving grace for Meridian ( and us owners) is that they have this community and a few very helpful dealers ( Bruce in the US and Rick in the UK to name a few) that are willing to work with you to help you build the system you want.

Meridian are no better nor worse than other companies in my experience.

Following the woes of owning a Meridian G95, I vowed to never own Meridian again. Even so, trying to obtain basic pre-sales information from other manufacturers was worse than trying to get blood out of a stone.

As for repairs, most, if not all, audio manufacturers utilise custom surface-mounted electronics. If just one component on the board fails then the whole board becomes scrap. Once a device reaches end-of-life, and production of the surface-mounted boards ends with them, your whole device is living on borrowed time if the manufacturer hasn’t sufficiently stockpiled the relevant surface-mounted boards.

In my experience Meridian have been way better than most other companies ( as they should be for the cost) in the past.
My concern is will that continue. Support has been mostly shifted over to their dealers. I hope M will remain “ better “ than the less expensive every day brands.
Some dealers are much more helpful than others and more knowledgeable.
I realize that all products come to an end of life and it becomes impossible to be able to repair them after so many years.
I think we have a few good repair places on both sides of the pond.
In the US it may be a lot further away to have something fixed.
At the end of the day M still has great sounding products.
I hope the overall quality of the past products continues into their more current and future products.

it really bothers that in 2020, Meridian will happily sell you a brand dedicated surround sound processor that costs over £3000 that has no HDMI inputs. Then if you go and spend another £2000 on a UHD722 to get those inputs, you still don't have a system which can decode truehd or dts:MA (never mind atmos or anything more fancy) and it can't even accept a 7.1 input. this is just baffling. I know it's a niche market and they don't have the clout of the denon/marantz conglomerate but we're talking well over £5000 for what is essentially a 5.1 processor with no codecs invented in the last 15 years...

and are Meridian any more niche than trinnov? datasat? krell? lyngdorf?

From what I remember, the HDMI input is not included as Meridian deemed it detrimental to sound quality and so developed a separate box for the duty.
If HDMI is required you should consider Meridian as a two box solution and budget accordingly.

I don't think that improves things dramatically though. I don't particular mind the 2 box solution (though I don't know how convinced I am as to the reasons) but it still means you're spending over £5000 for a 5.1 processor which only supports dolby digital, DTS and LPCM... yeah, I know it's got 7.1 output but unless it takes a 7.1 input then it doesn't really matter.

At least the 861 accepts a 7.1 input but when you look at what it's competing with in it's price range, it's still vastly behind. I like the speakers, I really do and I think they are clearly the star of the line-up but for me personally, the processors are a major let down...

That's not to say I wouldn't like a second hand G65 and a pair of DSP3300's. I would and I know it would sound amazing, but would I pay brand new money for that processor...? There's a lot of choice in that price range with leagues more functionality...

I think anyone shopping for a new surround processor obviously needs to do their homework especially if they are thinking of spending in the range it takes to buy a new 861.

The 861v8 is a wonderful product for 7.1 but if you want anything more (Dolby Atmos etc.) now or later don’t count on an upgrade from M. IMHO the writing has been on the wall for a while (M is out of the surround sound processor business).

A second hand 861v8 at a great price (if 7.1 is sufficient) is still tough to beat for sound quality.

My wife and I were having a similar conversation at the weekend. I've been interested in hi-fi since the '60s. I saved for a GL101 over an SP25 Mk4 as it was belt rather than idler. I remember the impact (design as well as sonic) of the Lecson Pre/Power combo. I believe that was the first outing of Boothroyd + Stuart. I lusted after one for years. I even saw one in the display case at the back of Meridian reception when I took my 506 there for repair (hi Russ) in 2006 or so.

They were for many years a UK audiophile aspirational brand - looked and sounded great. Following their own path but always with sonic excellence and leading edge design - and with a specific focus on digital, thanks to Bob Stuart. Now? Not sure that's the case anymore. Yes, the products are excellent but are in a different market to simple audiophile. It seems to me that Bob Stuart has ploughed his own furrow with MQA (and that's a truly exceptional audio achievement of which he and Meridian should be justly proud) but the lifestyle and home cinema and car focus of the rest of Meridian's range has moved them on from what interests me. I wish them well but wouldn't buy anything - not relevant.

A shame as there are still many brands around still playing in the audiophile / hi-fi space (one of the reasons I look forward to HFNRR landing on the mat each month) and why I really appreciate this forum, Meridian Legacy and Mr Tech Guy - without which, I would have given up on my Meridian 500 stack long since.

In comparison, my vinyl source is currently back with an official dealer for an official manufacturer upgrade some 45 years after it was made. Now that's what I call an audiophile Meridian has moved on and left me behind. If they do a retro Lecson, however, I would forgive them much.

Yeah, you're right, but yet they are still selling these items brand new at a pretty penny. It's a shame though with Meridian being at the dawn of surround sound and highly influential in the area for them to effectively abandon any further development.

I'm kinda surprised that they haven't merged the 271 into the G65 and 861 tbh. If you were able to buy a G71/871 that did what the G65 does now, and accepts a full atmos input from another processor then you'd feel you've at least got an upgrade path, but as it stands right now, it feels a little bit like the surround sound processors are a bit of a dead end, or a plaster to enable you to use the DSP speakers which are their real product. Would many people buy a new Meridian surround sound processor for use with non-M speakers?

are they doing much new product development btw? when was their last new set of speakers?

It's interesting that you say that, as I feel that 2 channel is really Meridian's focus these days. they were top of tree for home cinema 20 years ago, now (as I state above) I think they've very much behind the curve. Lifestyle? well, they never really replaced the F80 and co did they? and as for the car systems, I'm not sure quite how much Meridian is in them apart from a Trifield decoder and a badge... or am I being unfair?

Looking at their current range, I feel like 2 channel DSP is really where their heart lies at the moment.