Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian Launch New DSP9 Loudspeaker

I was excited when I read the heading of this thread. Then I watched the video and read the webpage.

My impression is, sadly, that these are the opposite of many of the claims in the presentation:

- IMO, by far the ugliest DSPs Meridian have ever made. Honestly, to my eye, they don’t look sleek and the proportions aren’t minimised by the use of curves at all. They look tubby, dumpy, and oddly proportioned, a bit like a one-eyed space hopper or a tellytubby gone wrong.
- Cutting edge research on cabinet materials came up with the novel exciting material… MDF… Really? When Meridian have been using Meridium laminate for years, which actually was/is cutting edge and innovative. Yet they cost far more than a speaker made using a more complex laminate cabinet to produce.

They may well sound great, of course, but they’d damn well better do at that price.

I find the re-jargonisation of tech Meridian has been using for ages irritating.

I think they look absolutely stunning, can't wait to here them!

The design might grow on us?
Agreed resin+MDF vs Meridium might be lacking but might be good enough plus the design-curves can be more elaborate.
When I Visualize the Center speaker of these it could be absolutely gorgeous.

Looks like Meridian phasing out the displays in the new DSP 'speakers, which is a shame in my opinion.

Agree that the design looks a bit Meh, the rear panel line reminds me of a Miele vacuum cleaner lid!

I have to wonder who is going to spend much time looking at the back of the speaker when the front is so pretty? Kind of like looking at the underside of a beautiful classic car.

Design reminds me of the freightening character "Mårran" (Groke) from the Moomin books... That's not a good association.

Unfortunately, my brain sees this guy -

Absolutely agree with 3dit0r.

High End Munich - standout product Rockport speakers, in terms of inert cabinet they use cast aluminium, carbon fibre housing and a carbon fibre baffle shell. From Meridian - MDF.

You can’t just round corners and call it design.

I didn’t realise they were so small, basically a new 5200? But not so pretty.

I hear what VK says about underpricing but all that means is they may have been able to sell them for more. That’s just marketing not HiFi, not leading the market and innovating like the pedigree was. Marketing probably says if we charge X, we will sell x units and make x profit. People will buy Meridian on name alone for fashion or brand. Not audiophiles though. I don’t see anything new here, different names, same tech.

This looks like a tarted up DSP, nothing new, certainly not £60Ks worth. Unimaginative design or plain butt ugly.

For reference I am one of the faithful, 35 years worth. It pains me to say this. The old kit still performs excellently but as they drop product support and secondhand value slouch, repair prospects get fainter, it’s not a pretty picture. They may turn a profit, they have certainly turned a corner.

How about spikes? Everyone loves Gaia, Townshend are excellent, how about outriggers? Something to say we’re still on it.

Oh dear. These are just ugly in the images I’ve seen and that’s the first impression area that potential buyers might see them. These seem to have been heralded as some great announcement, following from the news that the beautifully designed G series and 800 series units are phased out. So Meridian now offer some ugly electronic boxes in the current 200 series, a few rather nice speakers but at ever increasingly unaffordable prices and the great announcement is a £60k ugly speaker. Good luck with the sales boys.

Meridian used to produce great sounding products of the highest aesthetic quality such that they were lovely to live with even when they weren’t making music. It’s looking like this is thing of the past, which seems pretty sad.

I’m never going to be in the market for £60k speakers, I might dream of a pair of DSP8ks (maybe a bargain secondhand pair as a once in a lifetime, retirement, purchase?) but these don’t look a patch on the beauty of those, or the 7200s or indeed 7000/5200s. Mind you the DSP6000s never looked like something I could live with either so what do I know?

Regards

Richard

When I saw the photos I thought it was more like the 5200 size but I have just had a look at the sizes and they are a bit larger than the 7200.
I would be interested to see and hear them of course, but it’s a significant step up in price from the 7200SE. (And I love my 7200SE)

I hope the company does well with the speaker and that it helps ensure their longer term existence.

On spec it appears to be a high output, full bandwidth system in a modest sized enclosure, compared to the 8000XE’s size. Some angles really remind me of the 7000, took me time to accommodate to those in my lounge but I prefer them over the 6000s. If I had a bigger space I might feel differently.

I’ll unlikely never own a new Meridian DSP but will always be intrigued to hear them.

Or this one: