gIzzE, I agree with you. I can understand how someone who has made a big investment into the 861 in the past say 18 months would feel upset, but the rest of us who have owned it for years, at some point the basic architecture of the unit would need a full on upgrade. And that is what has happened. This jogs some memory I have of Meridian or Bob Stuart saying something along the lines when the 861 came out that they felt its architecture was going to be good for 10 years. This review doesn't give the 10 year number but look at when it was written, May of 1999. That is over 10 years ago and the processor was running v2.0. In the review Stacey Spears states:

Quote
Meridian has designed the 800 series to last for many years. It is an open architecture design where everything exists on plug-in cards, much like a PC. And like a PC, it is easy to upgrade. When the next generation 3D card comes out for your PC, it is simply a matter of swapping out the old for the new. The same holds true for the 800 series. When the next generation DACs are released, you will just swap them.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_6_2/meridian861processor.html

What he doesn't say but I think is implied: just like with a PC at some point the new cards, the new tech requires a new architecture and the old just can't support it. When did the 861 first debut? 1998? So 1998-2010 is a very good run. Like gIzzE, points out, what would Denon do for you after 2-3 years, never mind 12!



Best regards,
Jerry
Main System: 861v6, DSP8000s in corners, DSP7000s Center and Sides, 1-9 humans.