First, good on M for making this happen. I must admit that I had my doubts.

Second, in these tough times, I imagine that it will be cheaper and logistically easier for M to hold the event on a Friday.

Finally, here is a list of plus and minus points that I wrote quite some time ago. Does anyone else feel the same?

My plus points from HH1:
  • Factory tour.
  • Exclusive demo of the F80.
  • Openness and accessibility of the staff.
My minus points from HH1:
  • The Q&A session didn't really work. It ended up getting quite technical and went over the heads of much of the audience; and although the discussion got technical, there wasn't really an opportunity to delve deeper into some of the real issues (such as MRC and bass management). For the non-technical, Meridian is limited on what it can answer in terms of future developments.
  • There was too much marketing in the presentations given the audience. It didn't need to be a sales pitch. The F80 sold itself; I bought one on the strength of the demos at HH1 alone.
  • The digital cinema / 8k demo was very disappointing and Meridian video was plainly behind the game at that point. Poor choice of demo material too.
Suggestions for HH2:
  • Have a whole load of optional sessions as well as a couple of "mandatory" ones. For instance, if I go again, I won't be fussed about the factory tour.
  • Include a technical training session(s) for those inclined. Particularly speaker calibration, MRC and bass management. Often you need such a session to come up with the interesting questions!
  • A presentation of the challenges/headaches that HDMI posed (from technical (audio HDMI spec and changing HDMI spec), political, and market perspectives) and how Meridian arrived at the solution it did.
  • Listening demos; lots of them. Run them all for the entire day (apart from during the entire group sessions), let people choose which they go too, and let them take their own discs. For instance, I have never heard 8ks set up optimally; 5k5 owners might be particularly interested in hearing the 7200s, etc., etc.
  • I'd love a demo of real instruments (inc. Grand Piano) vs. recordings of the same instruments played back via the 8ks. "Show us how well Meridian can reproduce audio".
  • Themed feedback sessions? e.g. Client/server music.
  • A presentation on where Meridian sees itself in x years - i.e. They tell us what they can rather than us second-guess what we can ask them.


Now where is that transcription of the HH1 Q&A session?!!! wink

Roon Developer and ex-moderator of this Forum
I am #25 in the HH1 photo of fame.