Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Is 800 DVD life over?

If you have the funds consider trading in your 861 and 800 against an 861v6, with an HD621, or a vanity board in an Oppo, and something like an MC200.

Having had a loan 800 while my 808.2 was being mended once, I felt it was quite 'flat' by comparison, and Sooloos/ID41 in the v6 will best the 808.2 by some margin again, so you have everything to gain 2-ch wise (unless you have a load of DVD-As, I suppose...).

An M sales rep told me this:

A disk spinner, while it extracts digital data, depends on its precision on analog circuits. The rotational speed is an analog control system, and the angular speed is not constant; linear speed needs to be constant which means angular speed varies with radius. And of course any misalignment af the disk. In addition, the vertical position of the head is an analog servo system. These work ok for CD data rates, but deteriorate with time as all analog systems do. But for Bluray data rates, the high precision lifetime of the analog servo systems is very short, and would be unacceptable at M prices. That's why they built the HD621 to do quality digital signal processing. For the analog servo control systems? Buy a mainstream spinner, like an Oppo, and replace it frequently.

Can't attest to the veracity of this analysis. But it seems plausible. It's what I do. I spend no serious money on mechanical/analog source devices. Silly idea. It's a digital world.

There is some really good info here. What an amazingly good idea to also give them my 800 as some more down payment on another 861v6 or higher. That was a great idea. No idea what they will give to me but I am liking the idea of keeping my 861 at top level, and just replacing my sources every few years.

I am going to call my Meridian dealer tomorrow and tell him to also offer my 800 during the deal and see what I can get. I also have a Theta Casablance I have always considered upgrading but just never felt the need because my 861 was so amazing sounding.

FWIW, if you can't stretch to the Sooloos core straight away, my 818 does a fantastic job of making my Oppo sound pretty decent as a disk spinner (apparently they're quite highly regarded as a digital transport?) and I'm sure an 861v6/v8 would do a similar job that way you could add Sooloos (say an MC200) at a later date. Remember you can also get a v6 upgraded to full v8 spec and spread the cost of that, if need be, although I think the v8 will blow you away

The entirely sane and reasonable story I have been told by M is as follows:
Oppo is a small Bluray player manufacturer (compared to Sony et al) who have as many employees doing firmware updates on their players as M have in the whole company.
Couple that with the lifespan of a particular model (M models last for years, Oppo refresh the line every year) and the negligible benefits of "doing an Ayre" over the HD621 (in their eyes).


Stuff about drive controls wearing out is a nonsense, Meridian hasn't had a player without a ROM-style drive since the 586, even the drive in the 800 was nothing particularly special IIRC. Certainly no Bluray player has been sold by a major manufacturer where the drive speed was controlled by an analogue device, all the motor drives are PWM digital switching types and drive speed is irrelevant because of the buffering done by the drive controller.