Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems CES 2010 speculation thread

I will politely decline commenting because although many/most on this board are aware of the use of conduit, the skills of master electricians / home integrators to run wires there are -- believe it or not -- situations in which this is not possible with my situation, principally due to the construction and vintage of my home, making this not possible for a reasonable cost.

I will further politely decline to add that are considerations other than the simplistic aspect of running the cables / wiring. As examples:

-- The analogue speakers (which are to switched over to a full complement of Triad in-wall speakers and Triad in-wall subwoofers again due to room constraints) are to be installed in an custom designed baffled wall in the front of my room that i) sits behind and acoustically transparent screen and ii) was designed with input from Tony Grimani (of Dolby Labs fame) which means changing over to DSPs -- even were M to offer better in-wall DSPs (i.e. because the theater only has room for in-walls and I am no fan of M's DSP 420s as L/C?R speakers having listened to them extensively) would cost many thousands of dollars.

-- There is also the issue of equalization as the room is to be equalized using Ashly professional kit which in the hands of a professional is far more effective then what M offers. The point being that here that the use of M DSP speakers just i) adds costs and ii) offers no benefit.

In short, there is little point in adding generic comments such as yours without knowing all of the facts...also interesting that I am second long time that you responded to with generic and unsubstantiated comments over the last day with Ron being the other one...really, not helpful!


PS. To the mods, apologies for this response but V's high handed response warrented this polite response...feel free to delete this should you wish...

@Joel: ~V~'s comments directed at you have not gone unactioned. Thank you for showing restraint.

Joel
A few comments.

Your restraint is indeed admirable and should be recognized as such

Secondly, I do think that there are many (most) here that understand that each Buying Decision and Installation Decision that someone has made along the way is an INDIVIDUAL one, driven by Individual Circumstances. Hence, most people here will recognize that Meridian's decision to not offer Analog Amps any longer will have more of an impact on some than on others. I fully understand that none of this helps you, but just to offer encouragement / support from the silent majority around here

Likewise, I do feel your pain on the promises of Upgrade-ability on the 800 DVD Player. Unfortunately, this player has now been around for about 13 years or more and I do feel that over the past few years in particular, Meridian should have changed their Promotional Literature for this product, as it had become clear that the Market had changed dramatically, and continued Upgrades were no longer going to be viable. This should have been clearer from the Promotional to new potential users, so that they were not buying under false illusions

For what it's worth, since buying my 800 in 1998, I've upgraded to V2 Hardware and then to V3 Hardware, thereby keeping the player relatively up to date. As a result of those Hardware and Firmware Upgrades, the 800 remains (IMHO of course) the Ultimate player for the Reproduction of High Res 24/96 2-Ch and Multi-channel material. Personally, I don't think that there are many other CD / DVD Players (if any) that I could have bought in 1998, that would still be at the "top of the game" (at least in some areas) some 12 years on

So, Meridian's promises of "Upgrade-ability" were actually true, but they should have changed how they promote it over the recent past

Long story short, and as a long term member here, I know that there are many of the "silent majority" here who do feel your pain and sympathize with your plight. For what it's worth, and as you can see from the Equipment Restaurant, Meridian's equipment typically tends to last a very long time and they will continue to service the Analog Amps, even if they do take too long to do so. So hopefully, you will be able to continue to enjoy your current system for several / many years to come

It looks like Meridian will continue to update the 861 (either internally or using accessories like the HD621) to keep it "Current"

All the best for 2010 and you do have the empathy of the majority here


Cheers
Ronnie

@ Joel (a.k.a. Virus) and Ronnie RE ~V~'s: I am glad to see that we are all on the same page regarding his comments. It is one of the reasons that I spend so much time here, both in terms of length of membership and daily time spent reading.

@ Ronnie RE Meridians Path: A few comments / thoughts to share with you:

a) As far as the 800 is concerned the lack of upgradability beyond 800V4 is the only complaint that I have regarding any of the M kit that I have owned. It is an issue for me than it may be / is for you as I bought it as a V4 unit the "promise" of future upgradability as HD-DVD and Blu-ray were to materialize. That said, there is of course the issue of where responsibility lays between M, the dealer network (not too far akin from M) and me from believing / thinking that the second drive bay in the unit would actually be used for a HD-DVD/Blu-ray.

A final point is that I concur with your comments about the current use / value of the 800 as a source for high res music but, that said, I have moved on to my SONOS due to ease of use, etc.

b) As far as M's decision to abandon analogue kit I have no issue with this as far as i) my current amplifiers (557 + 558.2) are concerned because they are just as good as they were yesterday and IMHO better than the current G series offerings ii) my current inability to re-wire for M DSPs or iii) anything else PROVIDED -- AND THIS IS A BIG BUT -- M continues to support the highest quality audio processing through the 861; that is, as long as a future developments that can and should be made to improve the analogue output (for of us that either choose or must use passive speakers) of the 861 are made then I have no issues but, should this not the case, then I will be very upset and will likely move on to someone else's kit.

c) As as as the support from the silent majority this is, of course, known given the nature of those of us who have been long time members and participants on this forum. That said, it does NOT diminish my appreciation of your reminding me of this.

IS the CES not starting on Thuesday ?

IS the CES not starting on Thuesday ? [/quote]Mebbe but the press releases that I received said "As promised - here is the Meridian info. I'm copying the bunch so
everyone is aware the new stuff! I convinced them to lift the embargo
on the 4th...................."

Since "the bunch" refers to Stereophile reviewers, I suspect it will appear on the Stereophile website before I can post it here.

Kal

Well its Monday now

Yeah. Time for those Stereophile slackers to wake up!

New touchscreen MSR is not going to happen for the same reason they don't release a Blu-Ray player. There are other companies (Philips, RTI etc.) who do that relatively cheap, and it's hard to compete with that.


I do however wonder what will replace the G41 and C51. 300 active speakers will remain in the program, but how will it be driven? Will a G46 finally see the light of day? You could also expect that they will align with the rest of their (DSP) speaker setup and make the Active 300-series truely active (meaning amps in the speaker enclosure), but will the CI people be happy with that ? A setup with amps in the rack is much easier to install and service, then having to seperately power each speaker.

IS the CES not starting on Thuesday ? [/quote]Mebbe but the press releases that I received said "As promised - here is the Meridian info. I'm copying the bunch so
everyone is aware the new stuff! I convinced them to lift the embargo
on the 4th...................."

Since "the bunch" refers to Stereophile reviewers, I suspect it will appear on the Stereophile website before I can post it here.

Kal


[/quote]


and there is nothing on the Meridian site!

Not quite true...

On the Meridian Media Centre site are all the press releases for CES 2010

Including... 861 v6 with Sooloos integration, 8ch MMHR input / 8ch speakerlink outputs and many things ppl have asked for.. But no word on apodising...

http://media.Meridian-audio.com/press/CES2010/Meridian-CES-PressKit/Mer_861V6CESFinal.doc

808.3 !! A new version of this reference player, including Sooloos integration using the same card as 861..

http://media.Meridian-audio.com/press/CES2010/Meridian-CES-PressKit/Mer_8083CESFinal.doc

For the full list of press releases:

http://media.Meridian-audio.com/press/CES2010/Meridian-CES-PressKit/

Enjoy!

Beat me to it!!

Interesting stuff and more than I thought they would release

As always, the Devil will be in the Detail though and that DETAIL doesn't appear to be there right now