I visited the show on Friday and sneaked into the Meridian 808.12/Sooloos,2/D8ks demo just before it started. Because of sneaking in late, sadly I was standing at the back of the room, fairly close to the rear wall. I guess that was a really very bad location as the music came over as very 'plummy' with a bloated undefined and untextured bass. Not at all a realistic representation of the instruments. This isn't a criticism of the Meridian kit as I am sure that it must have been due to where I was standing. (I hadn't time to listen to the demo again from a better position.)

I did take the opportunity to talk to one of the Meridian guys about a problem I have experienced with the slot loading mechanism causing lines of fine abrasions on the discs, where the pinch rollers had been gripping the discs prior to being removed on ejection. He said that it was a problem that had been reported and was due to dust collecting on the rollers. It seems they have a developed a disc with a felt like covering that can be 'played' and clean the rollers. He said that the dealers should be able to perform that operation - or there was a chance that Meridian might send the disc direct if I get in touch.

G92-DAB, G55, speakers: PMC FB1+, Squeezebox Touch, Duet, Sennheiser HD600, HP Proliant Microserver running Ubuntu