Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 500 Series for Music Streaming - What should I buy?

In my opinion, the cheaper DSPs (33 or 3100) or M60 would be a downgrade in terms of overall sound quality compared with A2s on a decent stands powered by high quality amplification. I've hung onto mine because I've yet to hear any Meridian speakers originally priced at 3k or less that better them with decent electronics in my listening room. I compared my A2-based setup with M60s and DSP 5000 ten-fifteen years ago (fed from a 506) but found the most satisfying result was neither -- it was an M1500 to assist the A2s a little. However, had I been starting from scratch then the DSP 5000 would have been better value overall, but they don't go particularly deep either, and without another expensive upgrade to 24-bit, I'd have been stuck with 18-bit... I can certainly relate to the thread-starters attachment to his A2s -- they really are very good and in my case have got better over the years as they've been fed with ever improving input. They sound superb with 24bit recordings via a 568.2MM -- way better than they did with digital front end electronics when they were new. Older DSP are very good value second-hand now, but I suspect that that is partly because buyers fear being stuck with a quite expensive doorstops if the electronics die. My next Meridian speakers will probably be a second-hand pair of 5200s or 7200s but I'll be hanging on to my twenty year old A2s as their capabilities are far beyond their second-hand value and are thus worth much more to me.