Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Ultra DAC - Q/A with Meridian's CTO Richard Hollinshead

Three points:

1) The Meridian amps: all current Meridian amps predate the "wide bandwidth electronics" used in the SE loudspeakers. Yes, good call as to whether or not they were up to the job.

2) Kef Reference? Are they any good? (seriously, I don't know)

3) Was the demo in the upstairs demo room? It was definitely a different acoustic to what I'm normally used to, and I wasn't 100% convinced of it.

Disappointing that the most expensive setup wasn't used. The DAC is after all £16k and should have been demonstrated with commensurate partnering kit.

I am considering the Kefs at the minute after these 2 demos - the way they layer sound I have only heard from speakers costing much more.

I really don't think it was them but yes it was the upstairs room - so it might been the room not helping - very big overall volume room.

First impressions @DJ Ellis are very disappointing. I wonder what was wrong with the Ultra setup? At this level of equipment, an extended home demonstration is essential - a one week loan with proper dealer setup in the home system is pretty standard for serious buyers. Does anyone know where the next dealer demonstration is taking place?

Reminds me of the 8K SE demo at Meridian West London, where the firmware was wrong and had messed up the crossover making them sound truly awful

Russ

I think it unlikely that Meridian has made a dud. However, and as usual, it's extraordinary that (apparently) no one checked that the demo would do justice to the product.

Are you seriously comparing the old M amps with Boulder Class A? It's on the same planet but very different electronics...

Now, switch in the Ultra DAC into THAT Boulder setup and maybe you will have some decent comparison to the Linn streamer..

I agree with that - but that is the 2 demos that were setup I can only say it how it is.

I didn't choose anything, that's not technically true (I chose to demo the Kef speakers on day 1 - Boulder Demo) but the dealer put the kit together for the speakers, it's just their ref kit I think.

I assume by what the M Sales rep said he was doing the same demo (kit from M) and is going up and down the country doing Ultra DAC Demos - but I would guess with different speakers each time but I am not 100% on this.

At the end of the day this was a Meridian and Kef organised demo so I heard what they decided to serve up.

I honestly thought it would be the new 800 amps that I have seen mentioned somewhere over the G's but they did have 2 amps in bridged mono - you would think that would be enough power and control.

My past experience of KEF's Uni-Q driver array is that it sucks the life out of the average power-amp: it needs a meaty power feed to work it.

A G57 is supposed to have a 1000w bridged mono and the Kefs don't go below 3.2 ohms as a load.

But they are low sensitivity 87.5dB.

For the expense incurred in buying KEF Reference 1's, with ideal amplification to drive them, it would be more cost-effective to buy Meridian DSP's (even at entry-level).

mea culpa, I didn't read the original Q&A with Mr. Hollinshead, I agree with Ludwig unless the ID41 is allowed to be a fully-fledged input mechanism on par with their USB implementation, and crucially, if the new functionality related to DSD doesn't result in improved audio results it's hard to see this in many peoples' living roons.

I would hope follow-on 818 versions have similar DSD and ID4X improvements (i.e. support SpeakerLink output to DSP SE speakers).

Exactly. Why not use Kef Blades or Muon for this exercise?