Originally Posted by Tintin
I think the point is that you are paying for a pre-amp, DACs and a USB card that some (me) don't want and won't use. Seems a waste of good engineering.
Exactly! The issue is that Meridian have built a top of the line Swiss Army Knife but a segment of the market only needs a top of the line fork. Consider the case of the member with the $15k EMM Labs DAC. Is he going to spend another $15k just to get Meridian's top quality digital out? I know I wouldn't. But I may pay twice what paid for the MS600 to get an endpoint product that specifically offers the best digital output that Meridian can build. Lost sales opportunity for Meridian - and a missed opportunity for Meridian to recoup some of the R&D costs that went into the 818 and 808. Worse, maybe if I can't get the sound I'm looking for because the great Meridian digital out specific product doesn't exist I go a different direction and sell off my Meridian equipment. Now another set of used Meridian products are on the market for someone to buy instead of buying new. Now Meridian has lost the sale of an MD600 and an MS600 as well. The other way to look at it is how can they afford NOT to offer a product like this? A wise marketer one said, "Ignore the needs of your market at your own peril."

Roon, MS600, Simaudio 780D, Simaudio P-8/W-8 and Revel Studio 2s