It's me that's been on tenterhooks, I can assure you. I have quite a bit of time, effort, money and expectation tied-up in this. It's been played out in near real time, and the ending still might not be good.

I'm listening now, and it has been useful to have the v4 to compare with. Back in post 148804 I described the difference between the stock v2 & v4. I thought then (as I had before) that the v4 was somewhat better, not in a very immediate or obvious way, but in important and quite fundamental ways. Having had several audio processors, I thought the G68, 861v2 and the v4 were successive high-water marks for me. Though the latter was really bought for the MRC & MHR capability, I thought it was a useful step forwards as well. If the modified v2 could sound as good as the v4, I thought that would be a worthwhile achievement.

Now I'll cut to the chase. To me, the addition of the LPS didn't just take the v2 up the level of the v4 - it took it well beyond that. It immediately sounded better, not after lengthy listening, not after detailed A-B comparisons, not with some music and not other, it sounded better straight away. There's a significant improvement in clarity, resolution, soundstaging, dynamics, transparency, musicality - almost everything. The best thing is that its still recognisably Meridian, in that it sounds coherent, organised and balanced. There's no false emphasis in some areas where other manufacturers score a few points at the expense of others. It's exciting when its supposed to be exciting, and relaxing when it should be relaxing.

The best thing seems to be the way music rises out of an inky black background - there's no fog or hash or muddle. The detail was sparkling, but sounded liquid rather than etched. It also has that rare quality of being able to slow down time, then shock you out of your skin when you don't expect it. There's no plodding to a predictable beat, or imposing a particular style, pace, or presentation to the music. These are all qualities that Meridian processors already have (the 500- and 800- anyway), but more fully developed here

To put some perspective on this, the improvement of the v2 LPS over the v4 was at least twice as great as the v4 over the stock v2. Perhaps it was three times as great - I can't decide yet. It was certainly a significant and worthwhile difference, rather than a subtle, fleeting or marginal improvement. I'm tempted to say that its like going from SD to HD audio, if that's not over-stating it too much. It could be that an 861v2 LPS on 16-bit audio sounds as good as an 861v4 + HD621 on 24-bit audio. I'm a little unsure at the moment, but the improvement is along those lines, where you get the benefit in refinement and naturalness, rather than having detail thrust at you.

I've got some more listening to do, but so far it's definitely a (3) on the scale in my last post - can't believe no-one's done it before. So I'm very relieved and very pleased right now.

Nick