Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems What made you choose Meridian in the first place ?

Similar route here. I built up over several years from Arcam 2ch to a Linn fully active 7.1 ch plus multi-room system, and then one day I moved house and discovered that I had 34 (count 'em!) boxes of gear. So I decided to look for something simpler, and the "digital to the last possible moment" philosophy appealed to me, and I auditioned an 861 and 7ks...and that was that...

Went through a few variations with 5.1 and 7.1 DSP's and have now settled on a 2 ch setup with an Imerge feeding a G91 and 7ks.

Regards

Mark

Interesting stories guys; thanks for the great read...
Mark - curious, what were the primary drivers between 5.1, 7.1, 2.X? We are in the house-to-condo transition and I have some similar thoughts....

ken

Ken: It was a combo of different room sizes, and then a trade-off between aesthetics and performance. I don't have a dedicated theatre room, so the gear has to sit in the main family room. I felt that the big box speakers (5.5kHC centre and DSP33 sides and rears) were just too intrusive for the small (for me) improvement multi-channel playback adds to most of my usage (50% TV, 30% CD, 20% DVD). I'm also very happy with the bass handling on the 7ks.

If I had had the option of in-wall I might have stuck with it, but I think my 2 ch setup is just fine for my current room size (about 5m x 6m).

Regards

Mark

I was fascinated by the technological concept of DSP speakers, and then my wife heard the crystal clarity of the DSP5200's.

I came from Lexicon DC-1.

I got fed up with a few nasty bugs and I'm one of the few that really didn't like logic-7 because it would hic-up now and then and steer sound completely wrong.

DC-1->561->568->568.2->861V4
B&W 803->N803->DSP5500
Pioneer DVD/Laser #1->Pioneer DVD/Laser#2->598-PS3

SB3 coming. Why?

It's hard keeping my CD's organized. It's time consuming to thumb through what I want. Sometimes I don't know what I want. I have many CD's that I only like 1 or 2 songs. So I repeat them to death or stop listening when those 2 tracks are done. Or I listen to the tracks I don't really like. I think I'll listen and enjoy music more with the SB3.

Many folks here knew SB3 (or similar) is the way to go long ago. I'm just a little slow. One reason I held off is I didn't want a noisy server running. I started down the NSLU2 "the slug" path but decided to just retire my laptop as a music server in the cellar with a couple USB drives attached. Low power, quiet, plenty of horse power. And it spins drives down when idle. Sometimes hard to do on desktops for some reason (dumber power management than laptop).

My brother had the 200 series and d600 speakers when I was listening to a cheap akai ghettoblaster.

I vowed not to spend any money on hifi until I could afford Meridian.

After ten years of saving money I did it and bought my current system (nearly all ex-dem).

I replayed my whole CD collection realising that I had only ever heard 50% of what was on them. I think all I am missing now is because my ears are shot and a little bit of 20hz bass. Happy with that (as are my neighbours).

My mates realised what hifi meant when they came round - they all want M gear and think of my system as the "reference" point for anything they buy.

I have not bought a hifi mag since I got the M system. What's the point of reading "oooh the clarity of these speakers is awsome" when you own DSP speakers?

Of course, this doesn't stop me from wanting to upgrade .... a G91 would be good ... if only I could find a home for the 596/561 .....

Happy Christmas/New Year/Winterval

Like many spods I design stuff in my spare time. I thought I'd designed something new and clever to work as a digital pre-amp for my (for me at the time) expensive Musical Fidelity DAC. Then when I did my research I found out that Meridian had beaten me to it by about ten years! I was using a Sony QS surround system at the time, and was determined to connect everything through the 3 digital inputs I had available - in the age where sound is stored digitally, it makes no sense to have any unnecessary DACs and ADCs.

When I read the web page, the system architecture blew me away. These were the only people who really seemed to understand the advantages (and pitfalls) of digital. A fully digital surround processor with speakers with a DAC per driver! FIR filter crossovers instead of agricultural power handling coils and caps! Describing it as elegant is like describing a Zonda as quick.

I decided to buy a 518, and was lucky enough to buy it from average_mph, who demoed his system to me (DSP5000s and a 568.2 at the time). The quality absolutely blew me away. I had never heard anything like it. I was used to mid-end (Arcam, MF - stuff you'd get from a normal hifi shop), but this was experimental proof of the theory!

Never looked back. My kit (G68J, 562V2 and 557 at the moment, 568.2mm and 518 in the past) has been so reliable (touch wood) that I've never needed the customer service, but I still can't see myself buying anything else.

Engineers love spotting faults in other's work. With Meridian, I'm just constantly amazed at how well it's designed. I've learned a lot from it. I've lifted the lid from a few of the bits of kit, and the G68 in particular is built to last.

My affair with Meridian began with a woman...

And as I've time on my hands as I write this post, I will apologise now for its length!

The story begins when my father started my interest in HiFi. In the mid' 70's he arrived home one Saturday afternoon with an Armstrong 625 receiver, Pioneer PL12D, a Technics cassette deck and a pair of KEF Chorale speakers. We'd had a Dansette before this... I can still see the expression on Mum's face when she added up the receipts for the gear - �450 in those days was a lot of cash. The system sounded really great and easily drowned-out mum's protestations...

From then on I was on a mission (no pun intended...) to get my own 'Hi-Fi'. Summer jobs and sundry other money-making schemes saw the arrival of a Sony TA-88, a pair of Technics SB-40 speakers and a Technics RS-630 cassette deck - I had a hi-fi or so I thought.

This set-up lasted a short while until a college vacation job earned me enough to buy a new Technics amp, a pair of large linear-phase loudspeakers and an SL-7 - I was going through a flashing lights phase and loved to see the overload LEDs on the Technics speakers twinkle as the Human League pounded out a Linn drum riff...

Then came my epiphany. I was about to begin the final year of my degree and was working in Leeds on placement, travelling from Halifax where I was staying with a friend's and co-placement student's parents. During this time I was introduced to a girl-friend (in the platonic sense I might add) of the friend I was staying with - within the time it takes for a 500 transport to show a disc's contents, I was infatuated with her. The girl - whom I'll call Alison - returned to London on placement and I was subsequently invited to a party at her flat in Clapham. I wasn't to be asked twice.

A bunch of us travelled down to the flat for the party whereupon Alison introduced me to her flat-mates, one of whom worked on What Hi-Fi - and guess what - his hi-fi was Meridian! It was a 101, M3s and an SP12. I couldn't believe the sound and was hooked.

Alas the relationship with Meridian took much longer to develop than personal one.

The next few years would see flirtations with components from Mission, Nakamichi, Acoustic Energy, Musical Fidelity, Sony ES, B&W, Castle etc until Meridian ownership arrived in the form of a pair of secondhand M3s. Alas these were stolen and a generous insurer replaced them with a pair of new M30s.

The M30s lasted a good while until in 2001, after a new-business start-up and having a truly fantastic first year, I bought a pair of new 96/24 DSP5000s to celebrate. I had arrived in the Hi-Fi sense.

I have since added to the original 5000s a pair of S/H 5000s for rears, an ex-dem 5000C and a secondhand 568.2 and 598 with SDI. Like another poster on this topic, I now no longer read the Hi-Fi press as I am utterly content with my system. Replacment will only happen if it fails and even then I suspect with Meridian's service, I will enjoy its companionship for many more years to come.

As a footnote, the relationship with the aformentioned girl is still one of a good friend - but listening to my Meridian hi-fi brings back associated memories of when it was much more. This is another reason why there'll always be room for Meridian in my home...

Have a great Christmas!

Mark

Like several of the UK bretheren I came to Meridian from Linn and Naim. I originally started with the classic LP-12 front end, NAIM amps and Linn speakers - all the rage in the eighties - just look at the HiFi mags of the time(betraying my age...)

This system got replaced by a full Linn active system which as has already been pointed out comprised a lot of boxes and even more interconnects (particularly on the speaker front - active speakers need a lot of connections) but actually sounded pretty good.

In the early nineties I started to look at surround sound and was unimpressed with Linn's efforts and so shifted to Meridian (562v, 565, DSP 6000 & 5000) and loved it, not only did it sound good its simplicity and WAF really appealled.

Since then I've not looked back - the 500 series components eventually became an 861/G91; the 6000s became 7000s etc. Sure the system has its quirks (I've lost count of the times I've had to power-cycle my G91 because its locked up during the HDMI handshake with my TV) but I have no desire to change. My only real wish is that there was a dealer closer to where I live since the local Meridian dealer gave up the franchise a couple of years ago.

Graham

My Meridian story began pretty late.
I had a "love affair" with Sonus Faber for quiet a while but due to ignorance I thought that I can compromise the source, and amplification.
I did not know what I was missing...
I always heard good things about Meridian but never auditioned until I had a chance to borrow some 28 years old 101/105s for few weeks.
Previously I had a NAD 317 and have tried some Tube amplifiers that I did not like.
I was blown away by how much better these 28 years old sounded compared to the NAD. Night and day!
Later I tried Naim CD5 to replace my old Sony 550.
I tried some other players like Rega Apollo but was not impressed.
Than bought a second hand 596 which I had to repalce its DVD-Rom drive to make it work and again the comparison to my naim CD5 blew me away!
The 596 sounded so much more realistic, "beefy" and involving compared to the naim it was unbelievable.
Part of this is equipment synergy as I found the naim works better with naim amplifiers.
I also found out that other speakers such as Dynaudio contour 1.3S sounded bloated with my 101/105s so equipment synergy is key.

One thing I discovered is that the "marriage" between my Sonus Faber GP Home and Meridian was an excellent one.
The next step for me was 541 and G57.
I am more impressed with the latter which added clarity, presence, airiness and sense of space/3D.

Since I am a bit of an old fashioned Analogue Stereo fan all the loss of justification to buy Meridian source components as we get into BR still does not apply to me.
I assume that once you have DSP speakers all you need is a transport or a computer to transfer the digital signal which takes away the justification to buy very expensive source components (and/or amplifiers of course).
In that sense Meridian cut the branch that they were sitting on.
Nevertheless, if you are still into analogue, or not able or willing to spend the money on the DSPs or you like your analogue speakers better, Meridian source components and amplifiers are excellent sounding, especially when comparing to other gear at similar price points and much higher.
They provide excellent value for money especially as a second hand such as the 596 as CD player which to me is one of the best Hi-Fi bargains.

I think that the Meridian sound is a matter of personal taste.
It is very smooth and velvety (some may claim: too smooth) but neutral, detailed and not lacking anything in the bass department.
To me it is pleasurable, non-fatiguing sound, especially with the musical material I listen to (Acoustic guitar, Classical, chamber, Bossa-Nova, Celtic, Blue-grass)

The M sound is an interpretation of the music that I agree with (I think every system provides an interpretation of the music when you really think about sound reproduction).

To summarize I can say that Meridian was my introduction to true High-End and what an introduction!

Same as many here -- domestic demands of an essentially one box solution. What's out there that does music and HT w/equal facility? Routing a processor through the tape loop of a two channel analog preamp wasn't going to fly w/my wife to be, and was frankly getting to be a pain to me as well.

Owned a Proceed AVP which was a great, underrated piece. Peerless ergonomics, very good two channel performance both analog and digital. But upgrading was a fiasco hence the demise of Proceed.

Got a Lex. MC12B -- took me a year to admit what I knew almost immediately: music sounds flat through it.

568.2MM/598 combo covered both worlds. How many other brands out there truly do this? (Halcro? Theta? Linn?) Have since traded the 568 for a G68. I appeciate the RC and video switching. As an SB user in other systems around the house, I've been sitting on the fence (why don't I wait to there's no used value!) as to whether to dump the 598 -- only worth I see for it now or soon is as a CD transport, will have to A/B this vs. an SB through the G68 one of these days. My speakers are and will likely remain analog.

I like that Meridian stuff is unique. They write their own code and have some exclusive and useful features that we all know about. Ergonomics are still second rate (why do I have to flip through a ton of surround modes I never use and are wholly inappropriate to the input?, for ex.), but is there anyone who knows more about digital than Bob Stuart?

My main HT/music space will be remade in the summer, and I may be retooling then. Hope we'll have a better idea where M is going w/it all by then.

btw, I'm writing audio reviews at www.sonicflare.com (Robert Learner), check 'em out along w/my audio bio.

I bought a 200 transport new. It's still going strong, one of the display lights doesn't work but the sound is still great.

I should probably upgrade the DAC at some point, as I couldn't afford the 203 as well as the 200.

As a result of my experience with the CD, I've just bought a surround processor and 5 channel amp in the knowledge that they are so well built they will probably see me out.

dpstjp