Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Discussion: A brief notice regarding recent forum changes

+1

I too have experienced excellent service from undoubtedly the same person hecd2 is referencing. Indeed, he is still the only seller on eBay I "Follow".

I joined this forum after "the change" so cannot fully comment on the before and after differences. However, from the POV of being a newcomer soon afterwards I genuinely wonder what the mothership contribution was like beforehand if all I have lived through is the promised great new era.

That said, I agree that it's the Owner and their Mods who should decide the site ethos and culture, regardless of my declining respect for M's management of communications.

"M"s input before was poor and we all know that it's still poor ... My observations only.

I think it will all be pretty irrelevant shortly anyway. I get the feeling Meridian haven't got a clue what direction to go in. I don't see them lasting long, I think within 3 years they will be a custom install company aiming purely at the rich and shameless.

Just look at their books. The only thing that has saved them in the last 10 years or so is some decent property purchases, it is only the fact their equity has shot up so much that they are surviving.
Their net worth has dropped from £6m in 2010 down to -£4m last year. It seems they had revaluations of property this year which has push it back up into the black this year, however, their total liabilities are at an all time high of some £16m.
The other problem they have is cashflow, for a company turning over £11m they only had £300k in the bank, as a manufacturing company that seriously limits the direction you go in, you start to make decisions on products based on what you can afford, not what you want to bring out or what your customers are asking for.

If it were me running that company I would sell it off quick sharp or sell off the assets and call it a day.



In regard to the company from an end user....

Where are they getting the next generation of customer from?

They need to have product that the new generation actually want to buy.

Why not team up with someone like Bluesound and bring out some streaming devices?

What is the entry point these days for a bit of Meridian kit? £4500 before adding a source?
What happened to the £500 amp? Sure it may be £1000 now, but there should be one.
How else are you going to get people on the Meridian train?

My daughters lot are all in their early 20s, most of them are more than happy with a pair of Sonos Play 5s, buy one to start with, add another for stereo, whack a play 3 in the kitchen.
It is how this generation listen to music, ignoring that is going to be at your peril.


I thought Matt Holland may have brought a younger more open minded view to the company in regard to product, by that telling some of the older lot what it is youngsters are wanting to buy. It seems not. Shame.

I fear you could be correct, certainly it appears they are going down the custom installation path, domestic hifi seems unlikely to survive.



Russ

Meridian need MQA to become established. But they also need to promote themselves and their products as the best MQA players (pun intended).

I disagree. I don't think that MQA has any bearing whatsoever on Meridian's future success.

Meridian still has (very) high end consumer products (is it making any profit from these?), but the core business it's targeting is clearly the custom install market. Will the likely purchasers of these custom installations care about MQA? I doubt that 99% of them will have heard of it.

You are probably right. But at least there is the Explorer2. And what about the Prime and Director (although these no longer seem to be on Meridian's website).

At the very least there ought to be a replacement for the F80.

You may well be right.

However, don't forget that two of Meridian's latest products, the Ultra DAC and the 857 are not intended for the install market. The DAC is certainly at the high end but the amp is in the middle of the market. This represents Meridian's return to the analogue market by cleverly adapting technologies and products to extend its reach. This is a very welcome development.

And as Meridian are the inventors of MQA, and likely to be the most advanced in its implementation, it seems perverse to throw away that commanding position by not fully exploiting it.

The problem for me is I don't want any more than 5.1, and I am only running in 3.1.

In fact, what I would like is a 3.1 channel pre amp that acts as an endpoint and can do MQA.

I'm not that bothered about TV, but do like a centre speaker and the ability to add a sub.

I don't get why the 218 is designed the way it is?
It has everything you need to make it a modern looking pre amp, why not design it to look nice too?

Is there plans for an AC218? An updated AC200?

The AC218 could be a great little unit, allow it to set up the headphone output as a sub out and you have everything you need as a decent starter system.
That for £1000 might get people into buying their first bit of Meridian.

They could then add into the range an AC318 that gives you Trifield, 3 channel system, good for music and for watching TV.
£1299 or something like that.

What about a new G95 and a new G65 type unit, with the missing formats and soloos/roon endpoint and MQA enabled?

Just so much basic kit missing from Meridian at the moment and they must know this?

Guys, now that the Ultra DAC, 857, 218, 258, 808v6, 818v3, etc have or are close to hitting the market, and the fact that MQA has been spun off to a separate company, all those engineering resources can be focused on other things. Give it a little time and the fruits will come.

I hope so.

I flirted with moving away from Meridian, which would have been the first time no Meridian in the house for 20 years, but simply couldn't do it.

So I will give them a few more months in the hope of some product news. Fingers crossed.

I'm all for that!

Arcam's recent release of the revised Solo Movie demonstrates that there is still scope for an all-in-one device in the market. Add HDMI 2.1 in a Meridian version with beefier amps and you're good to go. I'm still impressed with the G95 amplification.

For me, I want to see an all-new, Roon-implemented, MC200v.3. That is, a 'lifetime' Roon RAAT license would be included in the purchase price. Then, one doesn't have to be concerned with QNAP software incompatibilities in using MDMS.