Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat DSD making a return as a download based format?

My own personal view (no inside knowledge) is that Meridian will ultimately bow to market pressure and start to implement the higher resolution formats more widely, even though they (and we) may not believe there will be any worthwhile improvement in sound quality over the 24/96 we have in the later DSPs today. Virtually every modern DAC is now 24/192 capable and many are now accepting even higher sampling rates. It is not a question of what sounds best (a pointless argument in my view as all formats sound amazing if the original recording is well engineered and transferred, a point another member has already made) but more to do with what the competition is offering and what the customer thinks he wants. Marketing hype, if you prefer, but all companies are guilty in this regard and the tide is only flowing in one direction.

In fact, if you look at Meridian�s last three offerings � Explorer, Director and Prime � they are all capable of reading, and playing in native format, music at 192 sample rates. All of these products have received rave reviews, which to my mind counters the challenge that Meridian is failing to innovate. I think this trend will continue regardless of what loyal HH members think or request because the company is trying to reach out to new markets (both demographic and geographic), something it needs to do if it is to reverse the significant losses and development costs it has suffered recently. It will be interesting to see what effective sampling rates will be adopted in Meridian�s latest collaboration in Pono music, and indeed whether this new format will be playable on our Sooloos systems.

I�m not sure there�s much merit in trying to push Meridian down any one particular development path � they will be acutely aware of what they need to do to generate a decent return for their investors (who, after all, ultimately call the shots) and their marketing intelligence will be as good as the rest of the marketplace. However, if there are relatively cheap changes to existing kit that can be made to allow higher resolution music to be played in its native format, it seems somewhat illogical not to make these changes. I am thinking about the 24/192 DACs in the later DSPs and the balanced analogue cards for the 861 � if it really is a simple firmware update that is required why wouldn�t this be implemented, with the option to limit to 24/96 if preferred? It would help the existing customers who want the capability and it might even help sell a few more units to new customers.