Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP8000 vs Wilson Audio or similar speakers

Hi Robert,

Can you explain how this analogue/digital volume control work within the DSPs?

Thanks you

Bump. I gave up on separates because I literally can’t afford to assemble a hi-end system from scratch. I don’t doubt any product can be made better than another if you could just keep throwing money at it. There’s a pair of DSP8000’s with the SE upgrade on AG for $25k.

Is it reasonable to ask in this thread how many ex 8k SE owners could confidently put together a better sounding system armed with the same wallet? Then how do we define better?

Often times better pitch definition and separation comes at the cost of a hot tweeter that reduces the size of my collection. The best speakers I owned (by review standards) were the Revel Salon2 and while they had a tweeter that is amazing I’ve heard affordable Maggie’s I found more musical.

Good to know us Meridian owners are just as insecure as regular audiophiles

I got to experience Wilson Alexas in the same room as DSP800SE upgraded. For me the biggest difference was that the Wilson's had the most amazing soundstage I have ever heard. In that room the DSP8000SE had a sharper image.

Velcro recently went from 8000SE to Wilson. Maybe he will chime in. It is very difficult to eclipse the sound qualty of the 8000SE for the same money when comparing used versus used. At retail the gap is much wider in my opinion.

Alexa’s are very impressive. I got to listen to several Wilson speakers at Axpona the last couple years and they presented very well in the large rooms they were in.

Realistically tho for the same money you’re going to get the Sasha and a quality used amp, pre, and DAC when buying used.

I can only speak from my position and every time I go to the shops I hear something better, unfortunately when I box it and bring it home that beautiful sound stays behind. If I had $75-100k for a sound system I might have a different perspective, but from my seat at the table a pair of second hand 8k’s are as good as it gets.

Agreed.

Funny how subjective it all is. I love the Meridian house-sound (pre-SE at least, I've never lived with SEs) exactly because it's not mid-treble forward, like nearly everything else on the market.

The question arises as to whether or not studio monitors are truly neutral or "mid-treble forward". I hope not (and assume not), but if so, implies "mid-treble backward" when played through Meridian gear.

An update - The Wilsons ended up being too forward for my taste so I used the Trinnov's target curve to attenuate mids a little. Still forward wrt the Ms but not gratingly so...

This touches on something I've been aware of, and interested in, for some time. I read an interview with Tony Faulkner a few years back (I believe Hi-Fi World, Volume 22 Number 7, September 2012(?) but I can't find it to confirm) where he mentioned using Quad ESLs for monitoring, and my recollection of what he said is that he used these because they were rather bright and revealing and that if you mix on dull sounding speakers the resulting recording will sound too bright through most systems.

This implied to me that a) recording engineers don't necessarily choose speakers they believe are neutral, b) at least some of them are trying to compensate for lack of neutrality (in TF's case perceived added brightness) in home audio systems.

Personally, with the range of recordings of all genres I listen to, the mixes are pretty much all over the place in terms of balance. This is an issue for the industry and consumer alike - there is no standard everyone adheres to.

I believe the Meridian DSPs to be essentially neutral and accurate, in terms of balance at least, since they reveal the whole range of recordings as they are, from muddy to bright and everything in between. I've had systems in the past which reduce muddiness on recordings but at the expense of being overly tiring and which tame bright ones at the expense of everything being withdrawn.

Since my tastes are eclectic, and not at all about just listening to great recordings, I have to have a system which sits in the middle without being unduly unkind to either end of the spectrum. I've yet to find any which do this better than the Meridians over the long-term.

This just shows how difficult it is to get the balance right with separates.

On the bright side (no pun intended) you could always go back to bargain 8KSE and treat yourself to a nice Porsche with the remaining funds!

My reason for moving out of M was more related to support. India had an active dealer who stopped dealing with M. I have had issues which he has sorted for me, but each time it has taken several weeks. There is no active M market like in the UK or UK that I can source say a spare LPSU or something. And the situation is clearly getting worse.

I still like the M sound; but I am afraid for the support. Also, after I moved to Trinnov (for reasons unrelated to support and clearly related to product) it became all the easier to move the speakers as well.

Sorry to hear that. On both counts it’s something Meridian should be made aware of and get on top of - crazy to lose otherwise happy customers due to poor support or lack of relevant updates.