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Well that's a good point Daniel - Although some improvements are made in the A2 like hdmi 1.3 and a much sleeker look; For my evaluation purpose, the XA1 works best with the analogue outputs to the Meridian
Well only the XA2 has HDMI 1.3. The A2 is HDMI 1.2 like the A1 and XA1. For Virus Killer`s sake, the A2 MIGHT actually prove to be less costly to ship as it`s probably not as heavy as the XA1.

The players breakdown somewhat like this:

A1 and XA1
11 bit video DAC
Multi channel analogue output
Coaxial output
Optical output
HDMI (720p/1080i)
Component (720p/1080i)
RS232 port (XA1 only)

A2 (aka E1 in Europe)
11bit Video DAC
Optical output
HDMI (720p/1080i)
Component (720p/1080i)

XA2 (aka XE1 in Europe)
12 bit video DAC
Multi channel analogue output
Coaxial output
Optical output
HDMI 1.3 (720p/1080i/1080p)
Component (720p/1080i)
RS232 port

Performance wise the A2 is meant to be identical to the two launch models. The A2s are just starting to appear in the US this weekend. The A1 and A2 need the 2.0 firmware for 5.1 Dolby TrueHD support. The A2 and XA2 will feature this out of the box.

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continuing Daniel's lymeric - second verse

there was once a young man named Mark-
who thought us to be in the dark-
he came christmas day-
all willing to pay-
to hear us change tune and say Hark!
That`s great. It`s quite possible Mark IS Father Christmas. Maybe he should buy one for Bob Stuart since Bob feels upscaled DVD is enough. wink

Incidentally, my little bit was a spoof of our beloved age old Milky Bar kid adverts. Have a look at this one to get a sense of the melody.


*and no, I never expected to see a link to a Milky Bar advert on the Meridian forum, let alone be the one posting it*