Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861V4 Options...

I had a long conversation with my dealer yesterday afternoon and will have another one with him tomorrow...I am not going to be rash and jump ship -- because I still believe (at this point) -- that M does digital better than everyone else...I have also told my dealer that for a reasonable price I will move the the 861V6 but, at the same time, a reasonable price is a lot less than that the USD 16,000 that is been asked for...

Regarding replacements we all know the list -- Anthem D2, Arcam AV888, Classe SSP-800, Bryston-SP3, McIntosh-MX150, SimAudio CP-8 (and yes, Lexicon has been left off the list pending their new product release and Theta has been left as they have no HDMI solution) -- and, for those of us considering a chaneg, will need to go and listen to them...

That said, I have been a touch with a few of my former contacts/friends from my TMA AV192R days and one of the chaps -- he lives in the UK -- who is fairly knowledgeable and whose opinion I trust has suggested taking a look at ADA.

Although I have known of the company for quite some time I have never heard or seen their equaipment and would appreciate any feedback that anyone here could provide, particularly in respect of their Mach IV pre/pro and their MPA-502/PF2502 amplifier combination and their PTM6150 amplifier..

Thanks so much...


PS. And for those wondering, I am hoping to stay in the Meridian fold but, as noted above, need some reasonable pricing!

Joel I am with you. In my case I think I am just going to sit tight with my V4 for a while and see what pans out. The price for me to upgrade is just too high for my comfort.

Me too.

I am also considering waiting.

One option would be to spend $2k on having the 861v4 modded, which I have done quite successfully with other gear. For $2k I could upgrade the power supply, put in a state of the art clock, upgrade caps and diodes, and even transformer couple the balanced analog output stage. I'm certain that would make a huge sonic improvement.

Prior to the v6 I would have worried that it would hurt my warranty or resale, but not any more. For that amount, which I know I would not recoup on trade in, I could materially improve the sonics while waiting for v6's to eventually hit the resale market.

Also, since I use a laptop/network based setup to get redbook material into my 861, I could offline upsample from 44.1 to 88.2 or 96 and apply pre ringing filtering during that process. This would give me most of the benefits of M apodizing for that source (although not for Bluray discs or my television feeds.)

I don't think that BDs (i.e. high res.) are upsampled, and therefore are not apodised anyway, so that is one less area of concern for you.

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Asa
Not sure I agree

If the 861v6 has (as rumored) Meridian's best implementation of Apodizing / Upsampling then I assume there will be a future option in the MConfig to turn off Apodizing in the HD621 to allow that to happen in the 861v6

About 70% of TrueHD Movies are only 16/48 with the balance being 24/48. DTS-HD MA Movies are 24/48. There are only a Tiny few Concert discs out there with 24/96 Tracks

So Apodizing still has a significant part to play on Bluray and if the 861v6 implementation is better than HD621, then that's where it should happen (for 861v6 users)

Good point Ronnie. I find myself going back and forth on this. The good news is M is holding this open for a few months.

Is there anyone who currently offers 861 modifications?

Reference Audio Mods. They did good work for me in the past on a Denon Bluray player and on a Behringer PEQ.

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/M...;Category_Code=MODS&Product_Count=52

Good point Ronnie: I had forgotten how many poor spec BDs had been offered to a credulous market. Thanks to your pointer, I always consult CinemaSquid before making a purchase.

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I checked with Reference Audio Mods. They told me they do not offer anything for the 861. They suggested I look into improving the sonics of the digital source (transport) if I wanted to get better sound out of the 861. Said lack of space inside the 861 limited what they could do.

I still find it irritating that a $26,000.00 processor could benefit from any upgrade. At that price, nothing should need upgraded in my opinion.