I hope that Reuben goes on to start up a website to sell used M gear in a similar style that Lifestyle-AV sells pre owned B&O.

Speaking to Reuben he said that all his sales over the last 12 months have been through the forum, only a few have gone on eBay and they only go on there when he is prepaired to take a loss on it.

It has been said that Premium Partners felt Reuben was selling 'new' gear for a price they couldn't compete with. However, he has only ever had a couple of new items and they were bought from dealers clearing stock or when a customer had bought something and then changed their mind before installing them. He said he has a pair of 3200s that were taken in after they had sat there for a year and then the customer bought some 5200s. Literally a handful of 'new' pieces over the two years since he shut up his furniture business to do the used Meridian venture.

The forum was his business, and I genuinely feel gutted for the guy. The first thing he knew about it was logging in and seeing all the posts deleted.
He doesn't sell elsewhere and there was no notice given.
I think a months notice would have been nice to give him time to get a website up and running and some SEO sorted out. Just to give himself a chance.
Reuben is Reuben, he is not bitter, he is not moaning he is just gutted and a bit worried. 99% of his business was done through the forum and he was just about making living from it, but enjoyed it, so all this about selling through other avenues is a bit unfair imho.

Having someone who will pay top dollar for used kit and make a small margin on it is essential, without someone like that the start of the Meridian journey is so much harder, being able to buy a used centre to go with your new 5200s and G68 can make all the difference, it is the difference between being able to afford it and not.

If you look at the margins on new Meridian gear you will never get a good used price from an official dealer, why would they pay someone nearly the same price for a pair of 4 years old used 5200s as they can pay for a pair of new ones? Of course they won't.
I saw the purchase invoice for my 5200s, and it seemed like a fair margin for a dealer when you consider the overheads of running a retail store, but also then understood why they suggested selling my 5000s to Reuben as they simply couldn't offer anywhere near what he was willing to pay.
They were happy as they still got a sale, Reuben was happy as he got more stock and I was happy as I got a good price for a hassle free sale and could get my new 5200s in the front room same day. laugh



I have to say I lost heart with Meridian as a company last year. A pair of 5200s I bought were DOA and they had them for a month, the dealer wouldn't even lend me used F80 they had while they were away, and at that time I was using them in my TV room with a plasma panel, no other sound, not even built in so I was without TV for a month, well I would have been. Reuben actually lent me a pair of DSPs for the time they were away.


Then when I had an issue with a buzzing driver on really deep bass notes they would not send me a new driver, insisted on me sending the speaker in to them, even though swapping it over was a two minute job. I suggested me driving the speaker over and then picking it up later that day, they were not interested.
I managed to source one else where in the end.

I had decided that maybe Meridian wasn't for me.

But then when they started to talk a bit more, allow for communications through the website again I got a bit more excited and thought they had seen sense, that talking to their customers was a good thing.

Then all this.

I have just sold my last bit of M kit today, I am left with a single F80 and that is it. Time to have a play with some other bits for a while.
I know I will be back and I will still dip into the forum as there are some interesting and fun folk on here, and I really hope that the changes work out well. But the way things were done has left a sour taste, to me the forum was always somewhere to get technical advice and to discuss all things M, positive and negative, looking now it seems those negative thoughts might not be quite as openly accepted. Which is a real shame.




No Darling, I've had it months!