Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems New Product - Meridian Audio Ellipse

F80 was £1500 15 years ago.

That is equivalent of £2300 today so the "Meppelin" is actually cheaper than F/M80's

Meridian is going full Harman. Only a matter of time before we see them selling products like this in big box stores like Best Buy. How they plan on squaring this with the likes of DSP9 or DSP8000XE will be interesting without lowering MSRP.

They're well on their way to massively cheapening the brand like Harman has done to JBL with the masses, while maintaing a bespoke high end, home integrator and commercial theater division. Now a days only audiophiles, cinemaphiles and pro audio people over 30 even know JBL is still around let alone a great speaker maker.

Disappointing.

Meridian would be much better served making a new mainstream down-market brand if they are going for this business model. It also will hurt their ability in convincing OEMs and car manufacturers to use them as a 'high end' upgrade vs the likes of Burmester, NAIM, Dynaudio etc.

I hope the new Meridian ownership/consortium is aware this stuff harms the long term value retention of our M gear and arguably dealers and customers willing to pay MSRP for DSP speakers.

Just look how badly JBL gear depreciated ever since Harman made a cheap mass market product line using the JBL name. The 800 and G series also took a healthy resale hit with the re-arranging/discontinuation of most of their high end non speaker product line. This won't help it.

I think all of us know full well HiFi isn't an investment, but rather for enjoyment - However those of us loyal to the M brand for our love of their products deserve responsible stewardship of the brand, much like how the old ownership kept in production models for a long time by updating them keeping new buyers, dealers and sellers alike happy and conservatively bringing in new products.

Juat my 2 cents...

Please could someone explain the connection between the newly titled "Meppelin" and the F/M80 as I am struggling to understand.
I also wonder if Allen Boothroyd (M design guru) would have put his name to this design, or is he turning in his place of rest.
IMO it looks Vogon inspired and will be short-lived, superseded by whatever it does or doesn't do.

Hector

It is not hard to see where the stakeholders are taking the brand. I think the JBL reference is apt, but Meridian have no interest in value retention of legacy gear. I am all for the gear depreciating, personally, as I'd like to end up with 8k's someday. Harman also owns a few halos, like Studer, and we see the flood of high end stuff coming... from... oh wait. (Although it looks like they sold off the brand too? It is impossible to keep up with this crap)

It all kind of reminds me of Amiga/Commodore for some reason. **edited to add, look at the Amiga Walker and compare it to the new.. thing... for example**

The more I look at it the more I like it 🤷🏻‍♂️

I think that £1900 is a great retail price.. the M80 was fantastic at £1500 all those years ago!

Yes I’m sad to see the end of the road for G series and 800 series products, but, I can understand why they have scaled back the range... Meridian's vision of the future is clear… 271 and DSPs to “any” surround processor for the movie enthusiast. DSP9 or XE for the serious music fans. I was sad to see the 500 series come to an end as well.

I think we also need to be patient as Meridian enthusiasts and followers while the brand undergoes a revamp and I am just pleased they are revamping and are still evolving. Yes I’m in the camp that hopes they fill in the middle space between this new product and the XE range but they’re still bringing new products in.. that’s a good sign. Plenty of other brands have failed to change and keep up with the times.

I think we also have to accept the days of Meridian under the leadership of Bob and Allen has gone. Meridian still have some great minds there and they are working behind the scenes to keep M on the map. Which map though is still not clear just yet.

Regards
David

Some of the negative comments are interesting. In these very forums members were asking for exactly what the Ellipse is, a F80 like product with updated features. It can be a stand alone device or a neat little soundbar for a TV. The reference to being sold in Best Buy is amusing as that clientele is highly unlikely to pay thousands for what they perceive to be a bluetooth speaker. Put the Ellipse on the counter in a high-end kitchen store and the lady of the house will want one. It might bring a few newcomers to Meridian but we will have to see. If you look at the big picture, what Meridian is doing makes perfect sense for survival. Take a look at the fabulous DSP9 for instance, it is so much better than the 7200SE yet only one member of this forum owns a pair as far as I have seen. Dealers have reported quite a number of sales so that tells you that a great many Meridian owners don't spend time on this forum.

When I said it was "quite pricey" I wasn't really thinking about what an F80 might cost in today's terms, more what this Ellipse costs vs its direct competitors and in that context it's quite pricey. Not that 'pricey' means it doesn't offer VFM of course; I'm sure it does that. It isn't a market sector that I follow but off the top of my head I think eg the Naim Mu So isn't much more than about half that price. Perhaps that's a poor example to pick but I wish the Ellipse well.

It's definitely pricey vs whatever the competition is.

e.g. It's >10x the LG7 Meridian Boom. I bought 2 of those and they were terrific for my kids at Uni or for us on holiday.

However, I don't share the negativity with the ref to Harman etc. If someone buys a $3000 table top speaker it really isn't going to upset the XE owners unless there is a whiff of snobbery. Meridian has to be profitable and it's incumbent on the board to drive strategies to achieve that. In recent years it suggests they are beginning to succeed.

I hope the design grows on us. I still enjoy looking at a yellow F80 every day connected to the kitchen OLED.

It seems to have mostly everything I put in hidden 218 and 210 boxes connected to the F80 optical(via SPDIF ipurifier). Roon, Tidal, Spotify, BT and optical from nearby TV.

I do have one question though, seeing as this will most probably be connected to a modern OLED. Can you now set the OLED TV to output bitstream over optical Out and Meridian Ellipse able to handle that? Or is it 2ch LPCM ONLY?

Remember the F80 most probably had a multichannel decoder for the DVD reader, but I don't think it was exposed over the Optical In.

Just sayin, for the same money I'd much rather see Meridian offer a product like the Beo Stage with their latest DSP9 technology filtered down in it than a fancy one off table top speaker.

Especially since a lot of ppl tend to entertain/congregate around a TV room area so it works in going after that younger lifestyle buyer for mixed usage.

They'd do it better than B&O too, and could offer a smaller optional dsw like sub and additional BT esque speaker not unlike the eclipse that could be used and configed as a wireless surround pair. Or as a mono/stereo or 2.1 set. In a greater product line 'vision' then I could maybe see the appeal, but not without and especially with the retraction from the high end component space It's just not what I would've liked to see from Meridian.

Such an approach also doubles as introductions to the DSP speaker line and maintains Meridian's brand cache. Burmester being an example that M could still re-enter/remain in the high end 2ch component space. I personally would've never discontinued the 818v3/857 since It's as good a source controller/preamp/DAC and amp set as the likes of Meitner/EMM, Bricasti, Mark Levinson etc.

We'll see what they do next, but a DSP9 inspired center, smaller floorstander or bookshelf would be nice to see from them.

Not for me im afraid get a pair of 5200/5500 for that !

Stewie.