Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Something NEW in Jan 2012?

Speculating on the 818 for a moment.

As ncpl suggests: a two-channel digital pre-amp including ID40 and possibly including MRC. What else might it include? For that price it must have conventional SPDIF electrical and optical inputs and it may have analogue inputs and an ADC. Perhaps an on-board tuner? On the output side it would need options such as analogue RCA, analogue balanced, Speakerlink and (hopefully!!) SPDIF; perhaps for more than one zone?

It is the form factor that has me wondering. The 808 and 861 need to be great big things with the card-based architecture, disc drives and price tag. I have never liked their design, being a fan of the 500 series. Perhaps the 818 could be smaller, even with the range of inputs/outputs suggested above. But then re-use of 800-series cards would be impossible.

Re the M6 speakers.

Conical form. Wrapped in speaker cloth. Didn't B&O do this with the BeoLab 9s at about the same price point? http://www.bang-olufsen.com/UserFiles/File/Press/BL9%20UK_InDesign.pdf

Would multiple inputs have much of an effect upon cost?

Would multiple inputs have much of an effect upon sound?

What is the logic here?

But why kill the M80 before the replacement is ready? The new speakers may provide a cheaper entry to Meridain when compared to the other speakers in the range, but the cost of a whole system is going to be significantly greater than the cost of the M80.

The new bottom rung of the ladder is going to be much too high for many people who aspire to own Meridian sound quality.

I had a pair of Kef Concorde IVs back in the day that used this approach.

Kef used it as a cost cutting exercise; under the cloth was a plain chipboard construction painted black; cheap, but all the user could see was the cloth.



I had the wine glass stands too!

Steve.

It will be interesting to see if this new speaker is the first of a series with smaller variants emerging in the near future.

Lack of SPDIF is a serious diappointent though. Edit: but re-reading the release statement, its absence isn't a given so let's wait and see.

I find the wording of the article interesting.

.

Controls the company's Sooloos music servers?

I see something functionally like a cross between an AC200 and headless Control:10. Whether the core would boot without discs I do not know - maybe a flash drive of sorts. Just add external disk storage/network, an iApp and some DSP speakers and you have a complete Sooloos system.

But of course, marketing fluff and reality may be quite different.

Yes. Reading the article again the M6 appears to be comparable with a DSP5000 in price point and physical size (*). We could see an M5, M4, etc. to create the standard: monitor, big monitor, floor-stander, big floor-stander plus centre range that most 'speaker manufacturers offer. This would be then differentiated from the premium DSP range.

(*) They are going to have to be good to match the DSP5000 sound quality.

Seems odd to revert to the "M" nomenclature. I know the old M-class speakers were in the long and distant past, but they do still pop up.

Also a very good camera, a car, and a motorway, of course.

Clothes surfaces -round shapes - for speakers
WHAT a NEW innovation...

Maybe we get now DSP upgrades for older speakers

a cloth overall
second and third picture from the top

and new round shapes

round shape for corners

Robert

Hi Robert,

Your links aren't working (for me anyway)
Looks like you have some local IP in the URL?

Rick

Hello Rick,

thanks-should work now.

Robert