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

That is a bit over �5K excl. VAT?

Thanks Jerry, appreciate the sympathy and that is good advice. I actually don't fault the dealer though, he was simply marketing the 861v4 as Meridian and its marketing program instructed him to.

My guess (pure speculation) is that they could have engineered the v6 performance/functionality into the v4 and preserved the upgrade path, but the cards would have been more complicated/expensive to produce and there are thus greater economies to Meridian to start over with a completely new architecture and just retain the "ethos" of the 861. It kind of bugs me that they are even calling the v6 an 861, it really should be a 961 v1 if there is absolutely nothing retained from the 861.

W
Well north of $10K is in the "disgraceful" category to me.

So it is �6,500 to upgrade.

And a new V6 is �11k, or probably around �9500-10000 after some discount from your dealer.

Maybe it is better to just buy new and sell the 861v4 privately??

I bet you could still get nearly �5k for it, maybe more?? You could probably change from around �4k if you bargain hard?

GizzE:
Yes it would be worth comparing the secondhand sale price of an 861 v4 and an 800.2 (and earlier versions) to the trade-in deal on the 861 v6 and 808.3.

My point -- okay my complaint -- is that as a V4 user I feel that they have done a disservice in that there is no way to add one card so that I can get discrete channels from my HD621 into my 861 because were it known to me that the cost of getting 8 discrete channels into my 861 would be i) the cost of the HD621 + ii) the cost of an entire upgrade from a v4 to v6 then I woudl have gone a different route...at the very least they should have provided V4 owners with the option of simply adding this one card because now the cost of getting 7 channels into an 861 is USD 13,5000 (assuming the USD 10,500 is correct)...

And, yes, many will disagree with me but so be it, this is my view...but before telling me that I am wrong I have no issues with the need for a full upgrade for the other goodies...

My concern is reliability. Should I sacrifice a rock solid 861v4 for an unknown 861v6?

John, your thoughts have merit to them but there is no way for us to know that, its pure speculation though I find myself nodding to your post. I think in terms of naming, you have a great point but I think they must feel there is strong brand equity in the name "861" and they will leave it as such.

If we look at the price a different way: 6.5k GBP is 59.09% of 11k GBP and if we do the same with the US price- did they say it was 25K? Then we would get a price of $14,772.73.

Joel, I can't argue with that at all. I think you do get discrete in now, but its 6 channels instead of 8. How much of a difference is that? I don't know. I think you do have to be willing to consider that this is just the march of progress. I am sure M figured out there would be some customers who will be turned off by this. Its a shame if you are one of them in my opinion.

I am wondering whether the 861 v6 is even necessary if I am happy with my 861 v4.2. I realize that I will not be able to get 8 channels but I had to reduce my set-up to 6 for the immediate futue. Hopefully, the upgrade path will be available when I need it.

We need from Meridian more than their pre-announced trade-in option costs and the cost of new units.

We must also get from Meridian much more detail of the specific improvements in the 861 v4 and 808.3 so we can make an informed decision about the worth of a trade-in for their requested price. The details Meridian have released and/or released apparently indireclty from Meridian to date have not been clear and consistent.

I agree with VK that reports coming indirectly from Meridian HQ of "dramatic improvement in sound" are nice but not enough. More specific info is required. Eg, and for me, is improved sound in the 808.3 compared to 808.2 the result of only/mainly the analogue inputs that I would not rely on?

So don't just focus on the trade-in cost.

I may be off the wall here, but is it possible to use something like a 568 (for 24/96) to process the side channels of 7.1, using a G68 or 861 for the others? The feed would be from the fourth SPDIF of the HD621, assuming this were enabled.
I suppose there might be problems, but it is not obvious to me exactly what they would be.
Would be relatively cheap if it could be made to work!

Locus

I agree with you guys- I would like to know more about the benefits of V6 and I agree that v4 works so well that it might be more than good enough to hop off the train at this point. I think the one thing Meridian is saying is that the upgrade pricing won't be available for a long time so if its something you'd like to take advantage of, it would behoove oneself to do it sooner rather than later.