Andreas
Luckily the N801`s were on their ball bearing bases and were easy to move the required 10 ft or less out to the other room. The Meridians were certainly more difficult but still a lot easier to move than my D6k`s for example, as you can put back on “glides” over the spikes and that makes them easier to slide in a particular direction. The whole change process probably took less than 5 minutes.

Regarding higher blood pressure, both the dealer owner and my contact were present and they did all the moving. The only work I had to do was flexing my right elbow every now and again to raise the beer glass. [Linked Image from softronix.com] (not too many though as more important things to consider [Linked Image from softronix.com])

They were also very interested in the comparison as they needed to make a decision whether or not to stock these speakers at their shop for demonstration purposes. The dealer owner was also trying to decide if he wanted a pair to replace his own N801`s. (For what it`s worth, the answer was yes on both counts)

While your point on the “time gap” between auditioning the different speakers is true, I`d have to say, in the politest way possible, that the difference was not subtle. Again, I did think that I might struggle to “hear” a difference due to different room etc., but literally 30-60 seconds of listening to certain pieces was sufficient to observe a difference. I can say with confidence that if there had been a time gap of 12 hours, the difference would still have been obvious. (I`m neither trying to be flippant here nor am I being derogative of the still excellent performance of N801 and Krell, I`m just giving my opinion)

We did try the N801`s with their bases removed and while a gain was identified, the gap was really not dented.


JerryL
As you say, the audition was of the speakers in Stereo mode only and not as part of a home theatre setup. Therefore, my focus was on their “music” capabilities.

Having said this, I did find that their low frequency dynamics, extension and cohesiveness was simply superb. While the LFE requirements of a 5.1 movie soundtrack are different, I`d be very surprised if a pair of D8k`s did not give sterling LF performance in say a 5.0 setup. (As you know, each of the D8k`s have 6 by 8” bass drive units driven by 3 dedicated amps totalling 450W per channel, with another 100W for the mid and 100W for the Treble.)

As per my previous post, I already run a D2500 sub for movies only and I do find that this adds a certain edge to the D6k`s during movies and I prefer movie soundtracks with the sub on than without. I will try the D8k`s with and without and see which I prefer.

Regarding the price, your points on what is “included” in the DSP8000 are very valid. Indeed, in a reply post on another non-Meridian forum, I wrote that it was best to think of the D8k as not just a speaker, but an ENCLOSURE which contained integrated by still separate components for

� Upsampling to 88/24
� 2 100 MHz Motorola 56366 processors for DSP etc.
� 4 by 192 / 24 Delta Sigma DAC`s
� 5 dedicated amplifiers resulting in 650W RMS per channel
� 8 speaker drive units
� and all the high quality interconnects that would usually be necessary to connect such components



[This message has been edited by RHurley (edited 11-27-2001).]

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