Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian CD/DVD Players

For me, there are three non-800 Meridian options:

- 500 (MkII or (very rare) MkIII). As I understand it, the best player Meridian did with a regular "CD" drive. I'm not sure, but there may be operational advantages over the later DVD-ROM drive units.

- 596 (or 598). Meridian moved to using DVD-ROM drives, presumably for DVD replay, but also introduced multiple reads and triple-FIFO buffering to ensure the data was sucked off the CD correctly. Better than 500? I don't know. Operationally slower than 500? Possibly, but perhaps someone else can confirm? From a CD playback POV, the 598 is really a 596 with another board.

- G98. I wouldn't recommend this if you weren't planning to use it as a transport (switched mode power supply vs. the linear in the 500-series units). Arguably this affects the digital outputs too (apparently Bob Stuart heard a difference immediately when they first put a linear PSU in the 861...). For me, the only advantage over the other options is aesthetics. Operationally, probably very similar to 596/598.

I would probably punt on a 500 if I could find a nice example, particularly as the Ultra DAC is going to be doing a lot a re-clocking.