To support Chris's frustration of Meridian pricing in Australia, I have never bought a single new Meridian item in Australia. New pricing here can be up to 50% more than the UK or US pricing and as Chris points out, you do not recover much back in the secondhand market. Fortunately I am a hoarder and I have yet to sell any Meridian component that I have bought new or secondhand. The main reason for that is that I have 3 sons, who have all grown up listening to Meridian produced sound and it is being passed on.

I have also been fortunate to have a working career that has had me living and working in many countries, which has allowed me to buy both new and secondhand in the US and UK. The Meridian US secondhand market has always been an overall a much lower landed cost for an Australian compared to the UK market, simply due to the population difference of 300 million Americans versus 60 million Brits. UK secondhand pricing versus US secondhand pricing converted to A$ is generally always lower.

As for the many comments on Meridian's pricing, I just found an email reply from my UK Dealer of 20 years dated 22/07/2008, where I enquired about the cost of a Meridian 240V power supply for a DSP6000 speaker. I had bought four 110V 24/96 DSP6000 speakers secondhand in the USA. The Meridian power supply was going to cost A$3,700 each for one speaker. Now for anyone that has never seen behind the plate of the DSP6000 power supply, this part could be described as "dumb iron". The are two toroidal transformers anchored to the metal back plate with a circular rubber washer and metal disc each. There is the power cord socket and fuse holder wired to the two toroids and then a plug from the output of the two toroids, which plugs into a socket at the bottom of the electronics board above. All that was required by me to overcome this "rape and pillage" was to buy 8 "compatible" 240V toroidal transformers that cost me £45 pounds each. I snipped the wiring on the two 110V toroidal transformers and connected 240V toroidal transformers in their place.

Now given this was in July before the GFC later in the year, the exchange rate would have still been around the A$2.40 to the £1.00 back then. The Meridian price for four DSP6000 240V power supplies equated to a total of £6,167 in 2008, whereas I paid a grand total of £360, plus the minuscule cost of the wire joiners and my own free labour. A grand saving of A$13,937 to obtain the same result. They have been working perfectly ever since without a single problem.

Before anyone starts asking me where did I buy the toroidal transformers, I will not be answering this question publicly on this forum.

The original retail price of these in the USA was US$20,000 a pair. IMHO there is no better bargain in the Meridian secondhand speaker market than buying a pair of 24/96 DSP6000's for quality sound per buck.

Cheers,
Steve M