Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Just bought a Meridian MCD PRO CD Player!

Bought it for $150 and will be getting it next week. Had to buy it in view of its historic significance. Anything any of you want to chime in about this player will be appreciated! Which Philip's transport is in this unit, CDM MK.I perhaps or?
Reminisce away!!

I would have used that $150 for a great Valentine dinner Then again I need every dime right now to continue these mutichannel spending habits. I have a lot of 'historically significant' stuff around here if anybody wants some... Just kidding around by the way. Was that the first CD player Meridian built?

Hi Chris!
Actually I used to have a Meridian MCD player , which was Meridian's first player and based on the philips CD-100 chassis I believe. Here's the link of the MCD PRO I bought. http://cgi.eBay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...amp;ed=981934682&indexURL=0&rd=1

Now I'm curious! Does Meridian always take basic equipement from other brands and then modify them to their "likes"?

From what are the 568/596 derived from? Does Meridian also have their own products designed from scrap?

I find this somewhat weird. A leader in digital processing using basic's from philips, toshiba and what else?

I seem to recall the MCD PRO was the 2nd generation... I owned an original MCD which was demo'd alongside my Philips CD100 and I recall being staggered that there was a clearly audible (and measurable!) difference. I promptly bought it. Ah, so long ago.

I can't recall the difference between the MCD and MCD-PRO. Can anyone fill us in on that bit of history?

- Pete

Speedy,

You may be suprised to find that most boutique, high-end manufacturers that produce CD/DVD players OEM a basic transport from one of the mass-market mfr's and then customize/replace the internal circuitry. This is often the most cost effective and time efficient method of getting a player to market.

And, yes, I believe (some/all of?) Meridian's earlier CD players were based on an OEM'd transport, but in their own physical chassis. The 800 and 596, however, are entirely of Meridian's own design. They do purchase an "off the shelf" computer DVD drive, which only makes sense, but everything else is of their design.

From my engineer's perspective, this makes perfect sense to me, rather than "somewhat weird". For the "leader in digital processing", Meridian focuses R&D efforts on what they do best and then leverage technology from other companies that focus on what they do best. Following your line of reasoning, one may argue that Meridian should be designing and building their own DSP engine's rather than buying them from Motorola. Perhaps Meridian could design and architect a superior DSP than Motorola (or Analog Device or Toshiba...), but at what cost? The NRE (non-recurring engineering) charges and R&D dollars to do so would make the resulting products very expensive. As if they aren't already... ;-)

Sorry if I'm ranting a bit here, as a hardware design engineer, I've seen far too many examples over the years of the NIH (not-invented-here) syndrome. Engineers who think they can "do it better" than the company who's entire business focus is to build some widget. It's classic make vs buy decision making and horizontal vs vertical company integration.

Regards,

Dan W.

Lerxst,

thanks for your comments! I didn't look at it from your point of view and it does makes sense to me too now.

Regards
Speedy