I think it's fair to say that Meridian DSPs are not voiced in the same way as many conventional systems. There is detail there, but it's not forced on you in a hifi-ish sort of a way. That said, I do agree that there are good quality analogue systems which can excel in particular aspects, and exceed Meridian performance, but to date I haven't heard any which manage to tick the boxes across the entire spectrum of audio qualities in the way which the larger DSPs manage.

The comment about DSPs having lots of bass is understandable if they have been taken straight from the box, plopped down and played without proper optimisation via their menus. I've yet to hear a decent in-store DSP demo that sounded anything other than leaden and dead, yet I know they can sound magnificent when set up properly and I have worked my way up the range over the past ten years. I think Meridian should have a Demo mode in the firmware as the default shipping mode, which utilises the "corner" boundary setting.

Whilst many on the forum own DSPs, there are several very satisfied analogue system owners too; you'd really need to hear some DSPs in action before making any buying decisions.

Cheers

George