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

In the current range your options are through one of the surround processors (G61R, G68, 861) or through the 808 CD player (the new 808.3).

There were other options in older series (a two channel digital pre-amp, the 562?) and the earlier surround processors.

With a controller or with a MPMax221 Media Player Link

Steve.

Michael:

Your posts are valued and much appreciated so please keep following this thread.

Everyone,

I have read through the comments. There is some misinformation, so please wait for the official announcement answering all the questions from Meridian. I will post one once they give me the OK or maybe they will directly.

The trade-in program won't make sense for everyone. It's an expensive unit to build and since there is no value to them in the older boxes they are taking as trade-in, they are just covering their costs to do the upgrade. I've been in the business a long time and I'm very happy about the new products and the efforts Meridian is making to support their user base. I wish more companies operated like they do.

I can answer the question about the new apodizing filters. They are new -- improved from what was in the 808.2.

I promise that as soon as I can I will answer all the remaining questions about the program and the new products.

Thanks,
Michael

www.audiohigh.com

I know that Meridian's policy now is that all queries should be via distributors but leaving it to Audio High to slowly drip the information out to us on here is faintly ridiculous.

I am not criticising Audio High here, just the position in which he has been placed.

As a recent 861v4 and DSP3100 (all 5 speakers) buyer, appears this is going to be as I feared and expected. What an empty promise for "modular architecture" and the future-proof upgrade path.

I have been a loyal Meridian fan up until now (from 568.2MM, 562v2, 518, 596 through to 861 and DSP speakers), and have put up with all kinds of crazy workarounds to get decent SACD, Blu-Ray, phono, and headphone capabilities in my system. Sad to say that I will be moving on now though. Frankly, through my trials and errors of putting together an essentially separate headphone and vinyl system I have discovered that there is even better performance than Meridian offers and at far less a cost. My reason for paying the big $'s to Meridian was the upgrade thing (um, yeah, right).

Hi John,

Just curious; what are you going to replace your 861v4 with?

Regards,
Carl

The cost to build it should not be very high. The cost to desing it and support it will be high i think.
The number of chips and circuit bords can be compared to perhaps $500 units from Japan.

Hi Carl, I am thinking of using the Prism Orpheus I purchased for use with headphones and vinyl as my main processor in place of the 861. The Orpheus is a computer (firewire) based pro unit, with 8 channels of excellent A/D and D/A. It comes with a digital mixer software application that provides much flexibility for signal routing and processing, and opens the door for incorporating a lot of great stand-alone software applications for room correction, apodizing, etc.. Obviously this makes for a somewaht complicated system, but configuration ease was never one of Meridian's strengths either. As far as speakers, I am considering replacing the 3100's with ATC active monitors (running analog from the Orpheus). Whatever my obsolete Meridian gear fetches in the second hand market, I would put into a high end music server. Having the hardware separate from the software seems to me to really be the "future-proof" way to go.

It seems a funny combo, an 861 with the 3100 speakers, was it due to size limitations??

Surely a G61 with 5200's across the front and 3100's on the rears would have been a better system??

Depending upon how recently you bought your 861v4, and whether it was new from a dealer, I'd be going back demanding a full refund. Some dealers offer a full credit within a certain time period (unfortunately not 3 years, in my case).

Hmm, very interesting.

I came to the same conclusion regarding the PC's and laptops I bought over the years. Currently, I buy them completely software-less (except for the first O/S) with the highest power available. My current laptop celebrates it's 7th anniversay next month and still doesn't slow down (although I have a replacement waiting on the shelve, just in case). I think it is mainly because I keep my software seperated (and as bare as possible).

Now you say that the same might be true for A/V-equipment, which I wouldn't doubt a second when thinking about how much more that seems to be computerized these days. Although, future-"proof" is impossible IMHO, but more like 'next X-years proof'; where X is hopefully Roman