Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - Am I CRAZY for wanting to go back to Meridian

Back in college I had a 561M and afterwards, I had a G68ADV and HD621 for many happy years. As tike went on and the A/V world was becoming less and less cluttered, I took at all the wires to run my system (G68, 621, 3 McIntosh amps, and sources.. So when we built our first nice big house, I put in a custom theater and sold all the Meridian gear and fulfilled a lifelong dream of winning the "p" envy hame and built the rack inside the wall so you could see this:


https://i.imgur.com/onNs2RR.jpeg




So, when it went in in 2016, it was pretty much perfectly matched. N802, HTM1, SCMS, N804. Upgrade but bit me in 2019 and I moved up to the 802 D3's. Ever since then I have listened to less and less music. During covid, it was apparent that I did not like the B&W sound anymore, or at least the 802 D3's. I also evaluated how ridiculous some Mcintosh gear is, in particular their processors. The MX122 I had was a carbon copy of the Marantz at the time, just 5k mopre. So, I have started to slowly tear it down. Out went the 7 year old MciNtosh MX122 and in came a brand new Anthem AVM 70 and I made 1k on the trade. I was hoping the new McIntosh tube pre and it's awesome DACs might help, but nope, The 8-2's are just as forward and fatiguing as before. So, I have decided to try to get rid of them. A big well known trading site offered me a pair of Focal Sopra 2's for my 802's and the center. I like this idea.....until I was browsing their new arrivals and came across the Meridian DSP700.2 pair of speakers

What do yall think of these speakers? Would it also be wise to move the McIntosh stuff out and go to a full Merdian 2 channel system? We will likely put some in walls for watching movies, etc I already use this room for 70/30 2 channel to movie anyways,

While a in home audition may not be possible, visiting me to audition most of their speakers ( DSP 8000XE, 8000SE, 7200SEHC 7200.2, 5200HCSL, 3200, DSW) 271, 818v3, 808v6 will give you a good idea of what Meridian offers. I am only 5 hours away and we could offer a steak dinner and some great beverages.

Are you able to get an in-home demo on a Meridian system? After a week or two, you can choose which system you like better in your room- maybe this will make your decision easier?

I have my own bias (as probably most of us here), but sold all of my analog equipment years ago to go with DSPs and never looked back.

Kef Blade to DSP8k with SE upgrade?

The Meridian’s surprisingly can match or at least come close to the Blades notorious holographic soundstage.

The short version is the 2 speakers couldn't sound more different with the 8k sounds emerge from a solid bass foundation that seems always present while the blades have bass they're much lighter sounding with more energy above 10-12 khz.

After listening to the Blades for the last year+ I am enjoying the DSP 8k's and will keep them set up while I go thru all the favorite tunes again.

I think in a large room with lots of windows, typical American 2 story 20'x20'x20' living room the 8Ks would be a godsend while the Blades would shine in a darker sounding room.

:LOL. Indeed! It also has to do with damping, distortion; especially intermodulation as well as harmonic. Resolution of sub-signals not just the main one. Phase/time coherence. As well as how they couple to the room they are being played in, this includes positioning.

There is an awful lot of dependence on those air flapping motors to deliver the quality they do. This is not woo-woo as the Thiele-Small parameters, and anechoic chamber characteristics do define how a speaker will sound in any given room with about 90% confidence.

What most people hear however is not the speaker's but the room's response that is energised by the speakers.

By the way, I recently ready this (written by the guy who designed the J L Audio CR-1, among other things, as I understand it) about the correct way to actually implement subwoofers, and found it totally fascinating and useful, just thought others might be interested - All About Subs Whitepaper. Particularly found the part about phase, and needing more than just a simple +/- switch to do the job properly very useful, as is the part about ported mains/subs...