Originally Posted by Ronnie Hurley
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??

This is different to what they told me Ronnie!

Originally Posted by Ronnie Hurley
especially if you also incorporate an HD621 for Bluray (which I would STRONGLY recommend by the way)

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

Originally Posted by Ronnie Hurley
Equally, you have the other hassle of Rewiring your entire room!!!

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.