On Saturday I visited ncpl to audition DSP8000s in a real life domestic environment rather than hotel demo rooms or Meridian's Factory Theatre which have been my previous reference points. They are awesome speakers and much to my wife's chagrin the visit has only served to further fuel my "want".

During the afternoon we decided to have some extra fun and audition my 800 (original v1 to v3 & then v4 with HDMI) against his SB+ (modified squeezebox - ncpl will be better placed to give details of that). Now in no way was this a scientific test, it wasn't double blind or even blind, the cueing of tracks on the two sources was as good as we could get it with ncpl pressing two buttons at same time, and the level matching seemed good (by ear) so we didn't attempt to calibrate that. The rest of the system was G68 and DSP8000s using Direct. Our ears were only slightly lubricated so I'm sure alcohol wasn't influencing what we heard too much.

Of course ncpl loves the convenience of the SB+ but also believes in Meridian magic, and I desperately want my decision to buy the 800 to be 100% justified so there may be some bias in our listening.

Well it was fascinating... the 800 in no way "smoked" wink the SB+. Indeed the two were so close that given a few minutes listening to any track it was easy to forget which one we were listening to. In 2 "blind tests" (with my eyes closed) I managed to guess wrong twice. I think we'd both find it difficult to know which was which if walking into the room with one playing and no other reference. Although there were slight differences you could hear on direct a/b switching they were that close!

If pushed for a more thorough description I'd say the 800 had a warmer, slightly fuller, slightly more laid back presentation, very relaxing, very comfortable. On solo instruments - violin for example - I felt the tone was more pleasing on the 800, the SB+ having a fractionally more strident tone (and I do mean mere fractions) but with no live reference (even though my sons both play violin and viola) it's hard to say one was more right than the other. I could easily imagine someone else describing the SB+ as maintaining the "leading edge", with better transient attack and the 800 as rolled off but we're talking minute differences, and personal preference will probably play a big part here (never mind the impact of the rest of system).

At times I felt the 800 had a bigger soundstage with better imaging - and then heard the SB+ as just as big. I did feel when the SB+ had it's big soundstage outside the speakers it was leaving a bit more space just inside them (rather like 3 separate left, right and centre images with small gaps between them) whereas the 800 was a more seamless image.

So final conclusions: I think ncpl isn't ditching his SB+ and looking to buy an 800. I'm certainly thinking seriously about an SB+ (I'd been looking at maybe an appleTV or similar to start heading into media serving...). And I'm in love the DSP8000s.

ncpl: thanks for providing your system for the afternoon I really enjoyed it.

Chris

Lounge/Cinema, Trinnov, DSP8000XE, 4x 320.2 in-ceiling, M6 rear, 2x DSW.2
Roon Nucleus+ and 320.2 in-ceiling in many rooms (KEF in-ceiling in bathrooms)
Spare: DSP5000, 598, 562v2, 500Mk2, 518, 519, 504, 101B, M3, 861v4, 800 DVD, MS600, MC200