Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Is the 861 a dead end?

More & more of us are thinking alike.

Referring to the Meridian website and the "861v8 REFERENCE DIGITAL SURROUND SOUND CONTROLLER", can it still be titled as such? If there are state-of-the-art features that are conspicuous by their absence & have been for some years now, shouldn't the 861v8 be renamed?

But diverging AND contradicting myself slightly, to be honest I'm not greatly interested in Dolby Atmos & the other (additional) surround modes, or >7.1 channels, but I AM interested in MQA. However, the Custom-Install market most definitely is interested in that kind of p***ing-contest, so what's being done to keep-up...?

I totally "get" the complications of adding MQA to a beast as complex as the 861v8 but I would be quite happy to add a card which enables 2-channel MQA pass-through. It appears that the "218" might be this "fudge" in disguise, but it's a shame there's not a neater or sooner-available option.

So, my 861v8 isn't a dead-end, yet, but it's a very frustrating and expensive box of electro-trickery that really isn't living up to its potential at the moment...