Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian should have its own stores

Manus,
Its beyond just the typical high end dealer. I think the average person is a little more familiar with Krell or B&W than Meridian. This is certainly true for B&O. If M was still selling really high end and kind of medium high end processors and speakers, thats one thing. But their new products are aimed at a wider audience. If the new iRIS is that good but no one knows about it.... IMHO Meridian needs better venues to showcase its abilities.

best regards,
Jerry

Jerry ,
As long as they produce the iRis and 8000 DSP speaker they are always going to have that conundrum . I recently wanted an IA45 card and had 2 e-mails go unanswered by a Scottish M dealer . So I then availed of Just a Fan's offer from the U.S. ( Thank you again ) Potential iRis customers would probably not persevere so much so a high-street presence is definitely required.

Regards ,
~M~

Exactly! Here the dealers dont really do that great a job of demoing a ~$40,000 speaker pair and at the same time, theres no place for the iris customer to check out the product. They need to be able to show the entire M-DT and then allow someone to know they bought a few hundred dollar piece of tech that is part of that mega buck M-DT. Same for the F80.

This is what B&O has going for it. And they also have digital speakers, and the entire package available there. They will even hook you up with a Kaleidescape if you so desire. IMHO this is the biggest challenge to Meridian going forward. Its those B&O retail stores.

best regards,
Jerry

LMAO

Best regards,
Jerry

Rayliegh Hi-Fi in Colchester UK have the F80 on sale and they are not a Meridian Dealer. (A Yellow and Red one)
By this I mean they do not, to my knowledge, have Meridian Kit on Display or to demo last time I looked.

Perhaps we will see more of this idea. "Limited range dealers".
Good Hi-Fi shops who only want to sell the entry level Meridian equipment and see how it goes.
Perhaps leads for more Hi-end buyers found this way could be dealt with at a later date.

Just my thoughts, Cheers Chris

Mine too as it happens. I wonder if we'll see the iRIS and F80 in the likes of John Lewis department stores? The F80 might be pushing it, but you never know. M should definitely get it into Harrods, both in Knightsbridge and in the airports. I'd wager they'd shift quite a few duty free...

Martin Kleiser now appear to sell the F80 as well. They're not M dealers either. I notice Russ Andrews is keen to push it in his monthly catalogue too. It's certainly getting decent exposure.

The wonderful thing about the F80 is that it produces a sound of such astounding quality and impact, and is better than most non-audiophiles have ever heard. The secret is going to be getting it heard and that means more non-tradition sales channels.

I could picture F80s sitting happily on display in Selfridges I must admit. Can't say that I have spotted one in there in recent months. I'd agree that, like Harrods, it would be a good venue to have them on sale (is Selfridges electrical department franchised? The Harrods TV and hi-fi department is basically a Sevenoaks franchise, who are in their own right Meridian dealers, but the Harrods set up has never stocked M products and has a complete Linn bias).

Perhaps even branches of John Lewis could prove a good selling ground for the F80 and iris.

With the F80, Meridian must have changed their tune compared to ~ 2002. An East Anglican dealer told me they dropped Meridian due to being required to stock 40k ukp of gear to keep their dealership. I don't know if this is true, but this was around the time the number of dealers listed on the website shrunk. I can understand this would maybe offer a better experience in those dealers that remain, but it pushes the distances between dealers further apart.

The local dealer here, www.definitive.com, does a very good job. Too good, as discounts are nigh on impossible! Many Meridian products have launched in this store.

Its possibly a few 'shops' rolled into one. 3 years back when I bought my Loewe TV, the Linn/Loewe was certainly an entity in its own right, and I think the Sony 'shop' that divided Linn/Loewe from the main shop floor was also autonomous. However, it may have changed now as last time I visited, Linn/Loewe were part of the main shop floor and there was less apparent segregation. And more importantly, gone was that huge huge huge holographic/glass TV.