To answer the original question briefly from my own experience.

7200 (.2 in my case) were an absolute joy to own. Not that much physically bigger in room than 5200 in real terms and sounded utterly superb with everything I threw at them.

The sound really grows on you over time, it took me a month or so to really begin to realise just how good they really were, as they are so subtle. This is more true of the bass than anything else - the texture and detail down there is hard to appreciate to begin with as there is still plenty of it, but over time this really becomes apparent.

FWIW, I found the firmware upgrade to the .2 made a huge difference in MQA sound quality, it really was much better. So much so that I stopped sweating whether I’d been wise to miss out on the upgrades when they were around.

They are revealing and therefore sensitive to source quality, though. Fed from an 818v3 they were sublime. Fed by an Oppo they were OK, but the difference was noticeable.

I’ve heard 5500 several times and never been impressed, 7200.2 are a completely different sounding speaker to my ears.

HC: 861v4/ID40/LPS, DSP5000, DSP5000VC, DSP3100, SW1600, HD621, Oppo BDP-105, Sony VPL-HW55ES
2-Channel: Oppo BDP-105, TEAC VRDS-7/Trichord Clock 3/PSU, 551, Quad 303, Harbeth Compact 7ES-3, Kimber cables, Russ Andrews mains and supports.
Previous Meridian: 5000C, 5200SL, 7200.2, 6000, 562V.2, 568.2mm, 800v4, 808.2i, 818v2/v3, 861v8, 502