We have to accept that M are not going to design, build and market their products with a vote and sign off from this forum and that is their right. We may never know what, if any note they take of some of the wiser comments made here. They may not like it, but we have invested heavily in them and care just as deeply about developments.
Fully agree! On-line social neworking is a disruptive technology, and manufacturers are struggling with how best to react: leverage, ignore, or something in between. In this regard, Meridian is not unique. Frankly, I'd think Meridian would have to privately be chuffed that this community is as active and passionate as it is - other than Lumagen, none of the other manufacturers equipment I own have such a robust community - even if, occassionally, they are horrified by its manifestations.
My day job is as a manufacturing consultant, and I tell clients all the time that they simply cannot ignore on-line communities - and in the long run, they do so at their peril. Just the other day I heard a radio commercial for a company who defends reputations from slanderous or grossly incorrect online content - it's a brave new world.
At the same time Meridian are retreating from direct consumer interactions, many businesses and manufacturing industry segments are looking for way to go 'direct-to-consumer' - partly as a way to combat private lable brands, but also to leverage the growing 'self-help/self-service' element. I've mentionned before, but it bears repeating, that the hiend audio/video specialty retailer is an increasingly endangered species, and reliance on such a network is becomming problematic. I, for example, live in the Northeastern part of the US but use a dealer in California because there is simply nobody useful in my area.
Yet, I do think it is unfair to suggest that Meridian do not recognize some of these trends. Later this week I plan to attend a customer night in NYC, which they don't have to do, and am most curious to hear what they have to say. I think part of the issue with these kinds of events, and with show-related Q&A threads, has been a mis-match between what they'd like to do and what they can do - Meridian is, after all, a small company with limited resources.
I, for one, await the announcement of firmware updates to 'over a dozen' products with eagerness. I hope the 800 gets an official apodizing update, although at this point its getting a bit long-in-the-tooth and may not support a pratical update. We'll see.
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