Scott I agree with your positive comments about Robert Harley. He has a great technical and practical background and is now a very experienced and well respected reviewer of AV products. I eagerly await The Absolute Sound review of the 808.2. I personally rely mostly on Stereophile and The Absolute Sound reviews.

I will now add to my comments about the Stereophile review at the start of this thread.

The Stereophile comparison of the 808.2 with the Ayre Ayre C-5xe was not with the Ayre's new filter that is now available as a retrofit. That would then make a very interesting comparison with the 808.2 while we wait for Robert H's comparison of the 808.2, Spectral SDR-4000 CD and AlphaDAC.

The April Stereophile Recommended Products not only includes in the A class the 808.2 and Sooloos Music Server but also in the A class Meridian's 861 in the Signal Processor section and the F80 as the only recommendation in the Complete Audio System section. That "old" 861 processor is still so highly rated.

Whatever criticism we make of Meridian products we need to note how highly they are regarded.