Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - DSP8K User Poll

Obviously, being very excited about my recent acquisition, I cannot overlook that one commentator welcomed me to the 8000 owners club.

Purely as a matter of interest, how many users are there in the UK

Happy for the info to be anonymous and does not need to be location specific. Most of us have our equipment listed in signatures anyway.

I look forward to the results, which I shall start:

Ian P: DSP8000SEU

Spend it all. Leave nothing behind. You earnt it, you spend it. 😂

Marcus

Your memory is very good. Like many HHs I have journeyed through the Meridian range starting with 5000s, then 5500s, then 7000s (underrated until Meridian updated the firmware) before graduating to 8000s expecting that to stop my upgradeitus!

Not to be as in fact I have owned non-speakerlink 8000s, then speakerlink 8000s, then the 8000SEs & finally (whatever that means!) the 8000SEPP.

What surprised me about the PP upgrade was the greatly enhanced bass performance, subsequently I have been told this is due to a complete change in power supplies and the amplifier technology. It was a leap of faith when I placed the (not insubstantial) order, however I remain pleased that I did so.

Regards
Colin

I went 5000 -> 5500 -> 8000 -> 8000 Anniversary -> 8000XE

Just as an aside, I also went back to 2ch with the Anniversary and am still 2ch only.

Each step was a big jump is SQ. I thought I'd fixed upgraditis with the first pair of 8k, but, clearly not

Once you listen to the XE's you will spend your time pondering of ways to buy them.

5000s way back in the 90s to 8kXEs today. End game, not because there won't anything better to come along, but because I'm old enough that age-related hearing loss is to be anticipated in about a decade. Also, given Meridian's pricing trajectory, I'd be unlikely able to afford whatever comes next anyway.

Another long term owner with a similar upgrade strategy: 5000->6000->7000->8000->8000SE->8000XE taking some 30 years to accomplish.
Along the way I’ve also gone 568->G91->861 (v4, v6, v8)->trinnov for surround duties

Says something about the Meridian sound that I’ve not been tempted to change in all that time

I'm lucky to own a set of factory DSP8000SEs that have subsequently been upgraded with the Meridian XE derived performance pack upgrades supplied and installed by Audio Images.

With retirement coming soon I'm looking forward to spending more quality time with them!!

Congrats on the upcoming retirement Colin! And having spent some time with your UXEs, how much better than the SEs are they? Do I remember that you previously owned a pair of pre-SEs too?

Brilliant! That's quite the journey Colin but one that has clearly brought you a great deal of pleasure over the years. Long may it continue!

Just when you think you had the best, something comes out that's better. It's a wicked tale.

Here to 6 months old these things take me to another dimension ! Amazing piece of kit.

My route has been 5000, 6000, 7000 & 8000.

But, surely there must be more than four users in the UK!

Many perhaps, but most?

I certainly found the 7k to be far better then my 6k's.

Could be the limited space I have, which the 8k's are perfect for lol.

Perhaps I should temper the post with the upgrade being 6K/G98/G68 to 7K/808/861.

6k vs 7k....that's interesting. I skipped 7k as I just could not find enough improvement over the 5500 I had at the time. The 55k and 7k had similar driver/amp config and had the same limitations esp around bass mngt.

I was thinking of going 6k to improve on that specific issue but ended up at 8k sooner than I expected.

Also a 30 year journey for me.

I imagine that anybody looking to get into the upper echelons of DSP performance these days (possibly via re-sale) would be looking at 7200 or 8000. Not that 6000s can't still give amazing performance but I suspect their age might put some people off.

I went from DSP5000, through DSP6000 & DSP7200 to the DSP8000SE Anniversaries.

I've tried DSP5500s, DSP5200s and DSP7000s and they've never stuck. Each has limitations and issues.

I bought the 7200s hoping they would improve the DSP6000s, and was disappointed. It wasn't until I upgraded them to SE status that I heard the improvement I had hoped for.

DSP6000s when fully serviced can out-perform some of the newer DSPs, it all depends on your space and budget!

The DSP8000SEs are a major upgrade on everything but in saying that, I still use other studio monitors for 'critical' listening.

Cheers,

Steve

Audio-Images kindly provided a pair of 7200.2 and the 8000USE for a demonstration at my flat and whilst the 7200.2 were an improvement on the 7000's they just seemed more of what I already had. They then replaced 7200 with the 8000 and the improvement was instantly and fundamentally astonishing and the price differential became irrelevant. I just had to own them.