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

Trust your own ears....end of debate. Ignore what is written and ignore what others say.

Written statements from M ? you're joking right ? Totally impossible to guarantee what you will ever hear. Human perceptions....100's of books on that going back to Socrates or one of his mates.

Cost / benefits ? Anyone that already spends money on 8xx M gear has had to deal with this already regardless of the current offers. To some HH, they had 8xx and traded down as they didn't find it was better. Others would not live without their 8xx. Cupholder to some; prized possession to others.

Others will have to have it all because it exists regardless.

+1 no more cars or tyres.

But I think it is useful to at least differentiate between qualitative differences expounded by Meridian ("this sounds great") and quantitative differences ("this now has this which it didn't before").

Qualitative statements also alert us to the product, and persuade us whether to bother to audition it. Buying decisions would not of couse be based upon this alone.

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There's no Black & White here. It's always a combination of the two IMHO, especially for the Technical people here. So......

A "Press Release" or some kind of a Technical Memo from Meridian explaining what they've done to make the 861v6 sound better to its predecessor (I'd be happy to sell them mine above for a tener ) Such a Technical Statement would cause me (and most here I suspect) to go look & demo the new Products

However, it would only be after my Ears had been persuaded that I would consider getting my cheque book out

Personally, I like to Technically understand why a Product MIGHT be better. Probably not too different to having a justification for where my money might have been spent

But if I can't hear it, I won't buy it.

For example, Meridian said that the 808 was better with CD's than the 800 and offered reasons why. Never heard the differences, never bought one.

They subsequently said the 808.2i was better than the 808 & 800 and offered reasons why. Sceptically, I went and listened but this time the improvements were clear

God, I really wish Meridian would communicate more often on this Forum or even on their own website. It took me about 20 minutes to write my post of yesterday about the fictional 961 Press Release. Meridian could probably write it in 10 minutes as they have the facts. It would clear up so much speculation and disappointment around here

Agreed Ronnie: The phrases "own goal" and "own worst enemy" spring to mind.

Instead of an "Own Goal", what about the unique feat of an "Own Hat-trick"???? (US readers please forgive us our football (soccer) analogies)

1) Existing Owners willing to be persuaded to Trade-Up are confused by the lack of any official mention of ANY Apodizing in the 861v6, never mind that it might be even better than that in the 808.2i. The lack of a new "OE15" SPDIF by 4 Output Card for up to 7.1 DSP's just adds to the confusion and delays any decisions being made

2) The fact that Meridian are calling the Processor the "861" only pisses off those recent 861 Purchasers who invested in the 13-15 year old 861, thinking that it was going to be upgradeable forever. That was never going to be true. But if Meridian had called it the 961, I think those users would find it much easier to understand that this is a COMPLETELY NEW Processor from the ground up, i.e. not an 861 at all. Hence they might find it easier to come to terms with the okay-ish Trade-Up Price

3) Calling it an 861 allows Meridian's Competitors to point at the V6 and say "Oh that's a 15 year old Product that hasn't been updated to meet the current High Def sources and requirements like HDMI etc. All you have to do is to take a look at their User Forum and you will see a lot of pissed off users" That will stop some prospective Buyers in their tracks!!!

868 in line with G68, 568.

861 keeps in line with G61, 561. An incremental, but definable step to x68 status, but not a whole product line. Although ironically, the 861v6 appears so far to be more G61 than G68 - ie cut down version feature wise, although it does follow that of 561 vs the less feature rich, but better audio quality 568.

I don't think they could call it a 961 without also having a 908. And that would make owners or potential purchasers of 800 series kit nervous that a major change was also in store for other products, including the 810.

Of course, not all changes, even those from the ground upwards, are improvements. Perhaps the new architecture is cheaper to make? Perhaps the new architecture involved some changes of component because the older stuff was no longer available?

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Sorry, but I still stick with my 961!!!

In the same way as the entire internal architecture, power supplies and cards changed in the move from the 500 Series to the G-Series, it seems to me that the 861 is undergoing a COMPLETE Internal Change, with NOTHING from the previous 861 working in the v6 version

The only thing that is nominally the same is the Case and that has previous little to do with anything

If it had been called an 868, then I still think current users would ask "Why can't I easily UPGRADE my 861v4 at a lower cost" and Competitors to say "It's the same out-of-date 15-Year Old Technology"

Meridian are likely to proclaim this as a whole new way forward. If it is, then Call a Spade a Spade IMHO

I can only agree! On the other hand the 808.2 has enjoyed a life of only two years!


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When and where will this happen? Would that not contradict your earlier posts?

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A USB connection for configuring the unit would have been nice i guess.
RS-232 is good for controlling it, but pc's have no serial ports anymore sort of..

Is there nothing more that can be done with the current 861 v4.2? If we don't upgrade, will we be left out in the cold. The entire situation frustrates me to no end. Of course I have had my 861 for mor than 10 years. Maybe I am just unreasonable.

Rafael