Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems INFO: DSP8000XE Performance Pack (cease production May of 2024)

Hi Rick,

Is your MSRP of £17,500 inclusive of VAT for a pair or per speaker ?

If ordered now, when would be expecting to see delivery ?

Price List history always shows US pricing to be higher than the UK pricing.

If the UK price is for a pair inclusive of 20% VAT which is normal, then our USA brothers are paying a huge "freight" cost, once circa 10% Sales Tax is added, bringing the price to US$33,000. Currently this is the equivalent price of £27,430

That is an equivalent markup of 56.7%. What tha !

Cheers,
Steve M

Hi Steve,
You have PM and email
Rick

I wonder whether Meridian will come out with an XE version of and upgrade kit for 7200’s or 5200’s

If they follow suit as they did with the SE versions, then yes.

I don't think there are any plans for Meridian to release Performance Pack upgrades for DSP5200, DSP7200 or any other DSP speakers apart from the DSP8000.
Rick

That would be a shame. I would have thought much of the development work already done for the XE could be applied to their other DSP's could have been more broadly leveraged that way. There must be a much bigger market for upgrade kits than 8000's.

I suspect a lot of the design could be ported over and I would love a 7200XE to happen.

Trying to think about it from Meridian's perspective, I suspect the cost of creating a 7200XE would still be quite high as the design of the cabinet changed on the 8000XE and would need redesigning for a 7200XE too. I also suspect they have an eye on the retail pricing and I wonder whether a 7200XE could end up being uncomfortably close to the cost of an 8000XE. Finally, building new speakers are relatively risky projects compared to where I suspect they now make most of their money.

A 7200 performance pack would be enticing for many, but would also require some investment and I don't know how much revenue they've generated from the performance pack built for the DSP8000's. I don't recall seeing anyone on this forum commenting on getting this done.

Don't get me wrong, a 7200XE would be amazing, but I can see why they might hesitate before committing.

The cabinet for the new 8Ks are made of the same material and in the same dimensions as SEs(and versions)except for mounting hardware modifications, and, in the case of XEs the woofer holes were made larger. I had this discussion with Marc Koval recently. My apologies to him if I misquote him. Seems the same would apply to the smaller models except the larger woofers may be an issue.

I suppose that I was thinking more of a performance pack than full 7200XE development. I made the assumption that the tweeter is shared between DSP's which I realize may be erroneous. If it is shared, then presumably the 8000XE's tweeter could be used. If not, then that would be a much bigger development deal. I was also assuming that the DSP and amplifier modules internally shared architecture across the range such that modules developed for the 8000XE might also be applied to the lower models. Is this an erroneous assumption? Power supplies? Even if much architecture is currently shared, I recognize that packaging, integration and validation alone are perhaps more of an investment than Meridian believes to be justified. I generally view opportunities to reapply development work already performed positively given the significant costs presumably already expended.

Sorry I was silent about my response assuming new electronics and a new tweeter would be in any upgrade. The other variant to me not having heard the XE OR PERFORMANCE PACK, is it worth the cost given a lot of the extra performance is in the bass, given the smaller speakers with smaller woofers and less amplification.

True, however, I suspect there is more to it for a few reasons:

a) As you mentioned, the cutout for the woofers have changed - as has the cut out for the display (now replaced by a glowing logo)
b) The material used is a sandwich of alternating wood/metal layers glued with resin which means they can't simply change the woodwork, but rework the build process (with all the SQ testing that goes with it)
c) The panel of the DSP8000XE simply won't fit the DSP8000 models - I seem to recall this is, in part, down to the new transformers used

I was talked through the new panel in a visit to their HQ and they really have redesigned the boards in a very significant way. I believe the 8000XE is an example of what they could achieve when not working to a particular price point. For this reason, I'd love to see as much as possible trickle down.

My assumption has been that any development of a 7200XE would be to keep them ahead of the game - and that is would be what could lead to a 7200 performance pack (as opposed to creating a limited-time performance pack upgrade that would be sold to existing customers only)

I would be surprised if they didn't share similar circuits for similar types of amplifiers, however I doubt the amps are physically modular as they have differing output levels and there are a varying numbers of amps needed for the different speakers. This suggests that the boards would likely be similar conceptually, yet different at an implementation level. I would imagine the same would apply to their power supplies (different sized transformers etc)

This may turn out to be the case. My expectation is that they will continue to advance and use what they've learnt when building the 8000XE to move forward. It may not be the 'no holes barred' approach that makes the DSP8000XE the speaker it is, given the smaller brethren (almost by definition) need to be built to a lower price point than the DSP8000XE's