Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian 808v6 end of the road (aka discontinued)

And there are a few "obvious" upgrades for an "818v4" should Meridian choose to produce them (RAAT card, uprated Ultra-style DACs, selectable up-sampling).

Forget about wish lists, and dreams of new products for people like us here, Meridian is not that sort of company any more.

Meridian is a thing of the past. Enjoy what you have, there won’t be any more.

Cheers,
Jason

I believe you are correct. If 818v3 is not on the M discontinue list, I would venture to consider that the 808 drives are no longer freely available, hence the decision to make the 808 obsolete.

Hector

I'm well aware of what Meridian is now, which is why I said "should Meridian choose to produce them". They have a captive audience for an 818v3 to v4 upgrade; the question for *them* is whether or not the R&D cost for (say) "just" a 192k-capable RAAT card would make sense for them. But I'm not holding my breath.

I understand the cynicism, but communicating with Meridian, they very much still strike me as engineers with a knows-best attitude towards their products and secrecy about what is going on at HQ. I'd wager that attitude has not changed much through the years as a very Meridian-esque and stubborn way of doing business. Though it can feel bleak as the consumer simply waiting for their engineers to think of something cool/good enough to release to the general public. I dont think we should be scared away by the 'fixer' products they've released lately to please the voices that have been filling their inboxes in recent years.

I'm not exactly holding my breath either, but I still believe it is possible we could be surprised with some really cool things down the line. For my money the current 800-series lineup is still excellent with audio quality taking the front-seat, in stark contrast to most other available options which seem more concerned with a desperate need for checking off boxes and filling their machines with 'features' that don't do much for audio quality, but is still prohibitively expensive to add, to please a public who is sadly also increasingly more concerned with these 'features' being present above all else.

So what is the rational/ argument for future upgrades to the 818 not being applicable to the 808?

Did anyone discover the price of a new drive for the 808? Presumably this is something in the public domain.

Presumably, if an 818 upgrade was offered, the same cards could be made to work with a firmware update for the 808.

For: potential revenue, goodwill.
Against: R&D, testing, and opportunity costs.

In the US the drive will cost in the >$300.00 range. As supplies get tighter, I suspect that supply and demand will dictate pricing. I bought the last one in stock last Friday but more will be ordered. So now I have a spare drive to go with my still unopened 808v6.

I am told that all remaining in stock 808 drives are reserved for use as warranty replacements only which will tie most or all of them up for the next few years. I am glad I was able to buy a spare drive for my 808v6. Some aspects of the drive like belts and such can be serviced for the out of warranty situations. Those would have to be sent in for repair.

This situation seems to be like insuring your car. Should I buy now or risk my no claims bonus in the future at a price to be determined on future availability of replacement parts.
Please could someone advise Manufacturer and Part no for replacement drive for 808v6, or were these Meridian specific
LTK Hector

Not going to sacrifice opening either my spare or my 808 to see.