Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Meridian or No?

Hi,

I am new to this forum and new to Meridian.

I have always wanted to have a dream Hifi system an have finally, after dabbling with hifi in the 1980s, found myself in the fortunate position of having the funds to buy a serious system.

I am looking for a system that can support a basic 5.1 cinema setup, but am much more interested in the 2 channel performance. On the advice of my Home Cinema installer I am considering Meridian. We started at DSP5200SE front, with DSP3200 rears, DSW.2 Sub, DSP520.2 centre. UHD722 AND G65.

I went down to Huntingdon to demo the Kit and while there stupidly tried the DSP7200SEs and loved them. I am now even thinking about the DSP8000SEs!

My question is after doing some research, it seems like Meridian has changed since the founders and technical leads left. The company seems to be more focused on licensing agreements and concessions. No new products (other than the wall speakers) for years and a company now lead by a salesman (sorry, nothing wrong with salesmen by the way I was one myself) and not a technical geek.

I saw a YouTube video tour of the factory from pre-pandemic times and there was almost no-one in the building. I like the sound, I love Bob Stuart’s design principles and legacy, but am worried that either A. The company will withdraw from hardware manufacturing altogether or B. I may have missed something and they launch a bunch of new kit imminently, that will make my expensive purchase much less valuable. I know it doesn’t change the value to me of the kit that I am looking at, but it is a concern when you are looking at making such a large investment.

Hopefully, food for though.

Many thanks.

I think the other aspect to consider is that as far as I remember there have been no consistent reports of unreliability in Meridian DSPs, a lot of other electronics have had issues but DSPs have been very solid. Two reasons for this, linear power-supplies and no moving parts beyond the drivers themselves. The Meridian electronics have been let down by SMPS and the disc drives (not saying there haven’t been other issues but these two are the biggies I feel).

If you like the presentation of the Meridian DSPs then go for it. Then just enjoy the music. If you like the sounds they make stop worrying about what chips the DACs are or what cables you can buy next, they don’t need you to mess about with all that.

Best wishes

Richard

Hi, unfortunately feeding decoded MQA stream into an 861 destroys the MQA signalling (as the 861 even in DIRECT mode) is not bit-perfect. In order for the DSP's to correctly render MQA the 861 must be circumvented.

That said decoded MQA (in my case by Roon) into an 861v8 to multichannel DSP setup still sounds extremely good, it's what I have.

Regards,
Carl

To expand upon what Carl said above, the current Altitude 16 does not have any digital outputs that can be used with a 271. A software upgrade will enable 4 additional channels that at the time of the announcement would be on a optical connector in ADAT format. When I asked about what device would be recommended to be used, I was told to standby. So it may be subject to change between now and when the software update goes public.

Just because something is new doesn't mean it is better, particularly with speakers. Just think how many 'old' designs there are out there that can hold their own against new models.

Unless I’ve missed something scanning through the thread, OP you haven’t mentioned the keyword which would be the key to “needing” an 818v3 over an 861v8 - MQA.

What are your feelings on this format? Is it enough of a deal-breaker for you that you really need MQA and therefore an 818v3 (or 218), etc., instead of a full surround setup? If not, the 861v8 will likely sound near identical with other material feeding 8KSE.

Secondly, I realise you feel at the moment that your priority would be 2-ch performance, but let me ask you, have you heard a Meridian 5.1/7.1 surround system properly setup (e.g., with MRC - Meridian Room Correction - done well, etc., full bass management...) for exceptional music reproduction? I ask because there is a misconception (due to most of the surround sound market being focused on cinema) that it is inferior for serious music listening. However, Meridian surround systems were never designed with solely cinema in mind - in fact, back in the day, Meridian were pioneers of hi-res (DVD-A) and thereby hi-res multichannel audio. So don’t assume that 2-channel will necessarily provide better performance/enjoyment in a Meridian ecosystem. E.g., I believe Richard Hollinshead once commented that the 861v8 was identical to the 818v2 bar the extra channels and processing - if one removed those, the noise floor would be the same.

FWIW, I started firmly in the 2-ch camp and went through various Meridian setups (all miles better than fairly esoteric analogue setups I’d had previously, e.g., Naim, etc.) culminating in DSP7200.2/818v3 which really are sublime. Then out of curiosity I listened to a Meridian surround setup done right. Now I have a legacy surround system (as in my signature) and couldn’t be happier. True multichannel recordings are insanely good (if you can get hold of a few of the Everest 3-channel recordings, they are worth taking to any demo) and Trifield and the other proprietary processing turns my 2-channel recordings into multichannel with stunning results. My wife loves it too - it works utterly seamlessly between music, movies and TV and sounds amazing on all of them. We’re no longer tied to a narrow stereo ‘sweet spot’ where only one of us hears things as they should, as the centre anchors movies and Trifield anchors music. We no longer have to set the speakers absolutely ideally and live around the system quite so much as MRC and bass management (well placed sub) takes care of the worst room modes.

So far (and I hope I’m not tempting fate!) Meridian gear has been the most reliable Hi-Fi gear I’ve owned and I’ve not had a failure yet. Considering I’ve regularly bought older gear, 20+ years old, I personally don’t have much of a concern in this regard. DSPs and 861/818 all have linear power supplies and seem to be pretty solid.

Lastly, even if Meridian continued to just churn out the same old Stuart/Hollinshead designs for another decade, they’d still sound better and (especially in the case of DSPs) be years ahead of most designs out there. In this respect, Meridian are perhaps a tad victims of their own pioneering? What I mean is, they were doing active and DSP 30-40 years since, only in the last 5 or so has this notion started to enter the mainstream. But they have had decades to really understand all the design parameters which really matter and only a few years since they were so far ahead the others are still largely playing catch up.

In other words, if you love the sound, don’t sweat that stuff. Tech always marches on, but it doesn’t mean the latest and greatest in terms of features actually performs any better. Having listened to a lot of gear, I still reckon the 861 is the best *sounding* 7.2 channels out there - is sound quality or the latest gimmick higher on your priority list?

A final thought - for a few years I ran 2x DSP6000 (predecessor to 8Ks) either side of a large TV for music and movies. They sounded awesome. But this didn’t work when we moved to a projector with a nice big screen as it meant compromising the sound by having to push the stereo speakers further out towards the corners of the room than was ideal for best sound reproduction. I don’t know your room layout, so you might get away with 8Ks at your chosen screen size if you go the 2-ch route, but I think it’s something to be aware of and make sure to plan the whole thing out with care if you go this way. With 2-ch you won’t have the same ability to compensate for speaker layout to accommodate a large screen as you would with a processor and multiple DSPs, and you don’t want to go for too small a screen to make that work. If you end up with compromised speaker positioning for 2-ch ‘purist’ setup, you run the risk of it sounding no better, or potentially worse, than a well-implemented surround system.

If you were to go multichannel and wanted full MQA decode to your front L/R your options would be 818v3 or something like a 218, which many here use with a little switching setup.

OK, in my mind, as soon as you mentioned your proposed room layout, and particularly the fact you don’t think you can accommodate a centre channel, this choice became a lot clearer. The centre channel is of such importance in a surround setup - some say, and I agree, the most important channel. Without it, I personally wouldn’t bother with multichannel. Nearly all the benefits I described in my previous post disappear if you can’t use a centre (and a full-size matching one at that). If it were me, knowing how critical this is, I wouldn’t waste money and room space on more speakers, I’d just go with 2x 8KSE/818v3 and be really careful about room/screen/speaker placement.

If there’s a way to accommodate a centre, though, then all bets are back on. With an acoustically transparent screen, you could be uniquely suited to a 3x 8K fronts setup, which not many folks can accommodate. But I guess to do so you’d have to explore using another part of the room other than the fireplace - I’m not sure how fire resistant Meridium is!