I'm only just aware of this, and I must say it's leaving a very nasty taste in my mouth. While greater involvement with Meridian might be a good thing, the way this has been done with a complete ban on certain sellers who, as far as I'm aware have never done anything wrong, seems counter to the spirit of any forum.

As many here, I have dealt with PP (Rick) and independent sellers (Reuben) and both have been excellent. Reuben honoured a warranty on an 808.2 I bought from him, but the repair was done through Meridian themselves, so it wasn't as though they were even losing s/h repair revenue. Without him, I wouldn't have bought into 800 series gear at all, and would not have then upgraded (via Rick, a PP) to a new 818/MC200, so I'm not sure what Meridian's beef is here.

As regards PPs, well they kind of sorted themselves on the forum in a survival of the keenest already, didn't they? Those such as Rick and a few others who are active and hugely valuable members, I'm sure reaped the benefits of their involvement. To those who didn't bother, how is this going to change their approach (in fact won't removing the competition make it more likely they will be even less likely to put any effort in)?

The oddest thing, I think, is that Reuben and other respected sellers are no longer even allowed to list in the private sales section, or just in a sub-forum for independent sellers of 'good reputation', distinct from PP selling forum? What is the reason for not allowing this?

Regardless of the specifics of individuals, though, there's something distasteful about it, which I can't quite put my finger on - as has been hinted, there is more to this we are not privvy to yet, but whether that is actually a good thing or not remains to be seen...

[Edit: Thinking about this a little more fully, it seems to me if Meridian wish to win over more customers, or score more highly on customer service/satisfaction, there are frankly more pressing concerns they could deal with than banning a few independent dealers from a forum they have an interest in?

Case in point, there is still, as far as I'm aware, no per-track artist capability in Sooloos, despite endless complaining on the forum, and I'm sure in other places. Let's talk straight here - Sooloos is *not* cheap, it is at the highest end of premium product for its type, and is marketed as a hugely powerful music organisational tool. Well, I'm sorry, but without this basic functionality, it's not. It needs this kind of thing sorting on a priority, and then continuing basis, end of. Even iTunes, which is essentially free has it for goodness' sake.

If I recall, there was also a case of not sorting the Control:PC woes of a certain reviewer, who, up to the point where he had that issue was one of Sooloos' most public proponents and doubtless won Meridian many sales - what's the sense in that? If memory serves, the addendum to the review went up on the site, and doubtless put some potential customers off.

Also, is it just me, or do elements of the GUI on the iPhone Sooloos app still not appear natively designed for a retina screen? Even 'bedroom' programmers manage to do this kind of upgrade in short order, and as the retina display has been with us since 2010, that's a little behind the curve, guys? I hope very much if Meridian are going to be more involved at the expense of other aspects of the forum, they will be taking these concerns and feedback much more seriously and actually doing something about them?]

Last edited by 3dit0r; 2013-09-21 23:04. Reason: Rant.
HC: 861v4/ID40/LPS, DSP5000, DSP5000VC, DSP3100, SW1600, HD621, Oppo BDP-105, Sony VPL-HW55ES
2-Channel: Oppo BDP-105, TEAC VRDS-7/Trichord Clock 3/PSU, 551, Quad 303, Harbeth Compact 7ES-3, Kimber cables, Russ Andrews mains and supports.
Previous Meridian: 5000C, 5200SL, 7200.2, 6000, 562V.2, 568.2mm, 800v4, 808.2i, 818v2/v3, 861v8, 502