Let me add my two cents, for what it's worth. As you can relate, this audio obsession that we share leads us down a path of constantly wanting more power, better components and bigger and better sounding speakers. I thought I had reached the pinnacle of home theater/audio nirvana when my system consisted of five Apogee speakers for my home theater, including a pair of Apogee Divas with Dax III. These were bi-amped with a Krell FPB-300 and a KSA-150. My center and surrounds were Stages driven by a pair of Krell KST-100's. My processor was a Classe SSP-75, CD player was a Krell KPS-30i and DVD player was a Sony es9000. I had probably spent another $3-4K on assorted silver speaker wire and interconnects. I thought I had assembled a fairly formitable system. But, I was always trying to upgrade in order to squeeze any additional performance out of my components.

Then I heard a Meridian system, a system consisting of only a 565, 562v, 586 and five DSP5000's and a M2500. I was instantly captivated by the sound and performance. So much so that I bought the system. I have since upgraded the mains to DSP5500's, added M33 side channels and have a DSP5500HC on the way. I have a set plan to upgrade my processor, probably to a 568 but hopefully to an 861 to take advantage of my front speakers ability to do the 24/96 upsampling. Thing is, I have never enjoyed my system so much. I am much less analytical toward the equipment and find myself just enjoying the whole movie experience.

Another positive note, the system is so simple once it's set up, that wife and my two boys can set it up to watch a movie without me. With my other set up, if I wasn't home, nobody could watch a movie. Plus, if you think that you can drive a pair of 802's with a Marantz amp, and be satisfied, I would be surprised. I would think more on the lines of Aragon or Theta amps would give similar performance as the Meridians. However, I respect the fact that everyone's ears are unique, but for my money, Meridian is the way to go.

Rudy

[This message has been edited by toothdoc (edited 02-18-2003).]

Meridian system: G68ADV, DSP6K, DSP5500C, DSP5K, Oppo BDP-95, Sonos