Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk

@Dpaws:

I am with you as well...M's evolution, rationale and revised business plan all pushed me to other brands...though I was once a huge M supporter I have left the fold, spent my money [and lots of it] elsewhere and will likely not be back...while well documented elsewhere on this forum, the 800's dead end and the 861's V4 to V6 upgrade pricing pushed me over the edge...

I am also disappointed by the high handed and "we do not talk to customers" policy changes...the companies I deal with are ones where I can pick up the telephone and talk to someone...though I will not discuss the pros and cons on my ADA Cinema Rhapsody Mark IV B pre/pro relative to the 861 V4/6 I will say that when I had a problem or when I discovered a bug [which has happened] I picked up the telephone, spoke to ADA's COO and got it resolved rapidly, inclusive of a software re-write [and, in point of fact, the lead software engineer and I now converse regularly]...try that with M!

Thanks for listening...

Thanks for your comments Joel - are you listening HQ? Really listening?

@Dpaws:

I am happy to add to this thread as I think it is a real shame that M lost me as well as others as loyal customers because we were perhaps their best ambassadors...

Joel

Talking of which, I notice Meridian's Brand Ambassador programme really isn't going anywhere. They've been stuck with Rick McCallum and some soprano most people will never have heard of for some time.

http://www.Meridian-audio.com/experiences/meridian-brand-ambassadors.aspx

While I am more pissed than most with M's customer relations I take some exception to your post.

You answered your own question. The 808.3 is a CD player. To get CD quality from a music server you need an MS600 as I have elaborated on too many other times to repeat again. With that a MC200 is as good as an 808.3 spinning discs, if not better.

I think M's MC200, MS600, ID40, AC200, DSP3200 and 861v6 are pretty darn terrific additions to the lineup, with of course the 8K past present and future being the creme de la creme.

I would love to give M headquarters a shake about their curtomer relations, but fair is fair on their products.

Aloha,

I would say that the 808.3 is a preamp that happens to have an excellent CD player built in. The 808i.2 is an excellent CD player that happens to have a preamp built in. The 808.3 does so much more than spin discs. The analog input is unbelieveable and the ID40 Sooloos interface is the creme de la creme. The C15 is a different animal that is notable improved over the first two iterations of the C10, but is not the same device type as the 808.3. So, no. I would not expect a C15 to sound as good as an 808.3, irrespective of the price points.

The original Sooloos model was to have each function in a separate device (source, storage and control). M has combined them in the C15 while also preserving the option to have separate devices with the other new Sooloos devices. Some might call that innovation.

"Some might call that innovation"

Unfortunately the post was renamed, I have never questioned the ability of M to innovate, only to deliver what the consumer wants when the consumer wants it.

The 808.3 is one of the worlds best CD/pre units. The analogue is superb and, if I had decided to follow that path I would be very happy to have one at the front of an analogue power amp and conventional speakers.

BUT... I see very little difference between the ID40 modular card and the new audio output card of the control 15. If you browse the wiki and watch the video you will see the share the same chip sets etc.

So, for that particular part of the digital signal path they should provide the same. If you're using the 808.3 only as a network receiver and processor, outputting via SPDIF via MSL in the same way there should be little difference.

However... the power supply environment is superior in the 808.3 and the 808.3 may have considerably more processing headroom internally for upsampling etc.

The power supply for the Control 15 could be improved if a scope shows noise issues. If I chose not to perform upsampling then I suspect there should be very little difference between the two on the SPDIF output...