Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this is the first weekend from my job that I have off. So, tonight, Saturday, and Sunday I will be auditioning like hell. I can get some time with different TEAC Esoterics and more time with the Wadias along with some time with Audio Research Corporation's Reference 7. That is just about it. I had to drive 75 miles just to audition the Audio Aero.

So, I'll post some listening impressions. I will go back to my dealer to get more time with the Meridian 808i again. He's starting to wonder when I will buy it. I told him about a competing offer from TTV&HJ, and he's thinking about it.

So far, I have to say that the Meridian 808i is almost everything that I want technically and sonically. I want a built in ADC, DAC, pre-amp, CD player, and maybe one hi-rez audio format with a volume control. This may sound crazy, because I really am and you can quote me on that, but I actually want to buy a Blue Jeans Cable coaxial cable to hook up my HP M7664X PC to the Meridian 808i, buy a 1TB SATA II 7200 RPM HDD, and turn my PC into a music server to stream music, Internet radio, Podcasts, etc.

Ahh...September will be grand fun time.

I'm taking all of my Aimee Mann CDs and SA-CDs back to my dealer tonight to listen to the Meridian 808i. Later.

THAT was an experience!

Aimee sounded upfront and personal. It was mesmerizing! It is so difficult to put into words what the 808i can do in its totality that other CD players can only get pieces of including the G08. It's like going to a live concert except you get to choose when the show starts and where you want to listen. Totally amazing and refreshing.

I am still in awe and shocked. Every audition is like listening to it for the first time all over again. IMHO, it is sonically perfect. Technologically, it is perfect. Every single audiophile descriptor is done to the extreme with this player.

Man, I want mine like three years ago when it was first introduced. It totally destroys other CD players even in its price class like the Wadia 581i or the ARC Reference CD7.

I could go on, but there really is no point. I am at the point of no return with regard to my love for the music this CD player makes. I feel like I am going to have trouble sleeping tonight and this weekend.

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I'm curious, were you able to listen to all three of these players in a common system over an extended period of time?

The ARC Ref CD7, no. But, the Wadia 581i, yes. To my ears, there are big differences in the house sounds for each of these brands. The ARC is much more mellower and smoother. It is totally forgiving and it always sounds euphonic. It is to a degree neutral and accurate, but it is also very much warm, liquid, and rich sounding especially through the midrange and the treble is somewhat rolled off and syrupy but sweet. The Wadia 581i is very very neutral and unforgiving, but there is a bit of midrange bloom and the bass is very powerful with plenty of attack and the PRAT of this machine is quite aggressive. It is totally opposite to the ARC. IMHO, the 808i is the happy medium between these two sound extremes.

I'm off to listen to some Esoteric pieces later on today. I am trying to see if I can arrange an audition of the NAIM 555 with the 555 power supply, but that will take time. I can listen to the Teac Esoteric SA-60, DV-60, and the P-03 universal.

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See this Ryan? 30-40% is in the bag man...in the bag!!!!!!

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If possible, I wonder if you could also listen to the CDS3/PS555. I really do wonder how close the CDS3 comes to the CD555. Both top-loading players, the former being the previous flagship until the CD555 came along. With the CD555 being much more costly, It'll be interesting to know what Naim have done to push the boundaries of the red-book format.

I've not held a career job like you are, but I would like to suggest that before you make any large purchases such as this, that you put yourself totally in the black. I would pay off all the student loans, car, house, etc. just in case something does happen at your job. Just a thought.

Thanks for the financial tip. The thing is, the way that I am planning this is such that I have enough liquid cash reserves to actually pay off the USDOE debt and buy a new Meridian 808i, but I would rather prefer to keep building atop of those funds so I do not drain that reserve. I still am adhering to the 50/50 rule.

So! I had a lengthy two hour audition of the NAIM CDS3 with its power supply which was not a 555. I don't think I care for its house sound. It is very bold, aggressive, upfront, and somewhat relentless. I listen to a wide range of music including New Age, Ambient, and adagios. The NAIM system does not exactly make such genres of music sound soothing for late night bedtime listening. Not my cup of tea by far.

I am looking for a much more versatile sound that can be in NAIM territory yet also be in ARC homeland while sounding as dead on accurate as Ayre or WADIA. So far, the Meridians can walk that tightrope pretty well.

Later, I got to setup my X.Org server correctly in FreeBSD 6.2 and get that OS up and running by this weekend. I already finished my 2006 tax return and figured out how to enable file and printer sharing in Vista / XP so I'll be busy for awhile.

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Makes too much sense.

Thank you for your suggestions thus far. I do appreciate them in that they do "ground me."

I have been receiving PMs from a few members inquiring not only why I would be mad enough to even consider financing the Meridian 808i, but also as to why I need the 808i rather than the 808 per se. To that end, I shall discuss my reasoning. The Meridian 808 is the CD/DVD-Audio player with both the analog unbalanced and balanced outputs. It does not have the analog to digital converter, digital to analog convertor, the line level pre-amplification, as well as the multiple analog and digital input/outputs such as digital coaxial SPDIF, TOSLink, MHR, and the six unbalanced inputs. Yet, both do offer the constant or variable outputs.

I would like to buy the Meridian 808i because I would like to be able to add different source components such as my existing Denon DVD 5910ci and a component AM/FM tuner while using the 808i as my pre-amplifier. In that regard, I can avoid purchasing a dedicated analog pre-amplifier and headphone amplifier such as the RSA Emmeline II B-52 or The Stealth and all of the sundry accessories such as power cords and unbalanced/balanced interconnects. Furthermore, the choices of TOSLink, SPDIF, or MHR will allow me to connect my HP M7664X to the 808i and thus enable me to buy a second internal SATA II HDD with which to build a media server...or at least a music server. Being able to send Internet radio such as Pandora, music streams, Podcasts, TV into the 808i will be an especially immersive experience. When I decide to purchase another desktop PC in the future, then I can simply either purchase another media center PC or buy a good quality internal soundcard with SPDIF, TOSLink, or RCA jacks and transfer my media data to the new PC and route it through the 808i.

Or so goes the thinking.

In any event, I do thank all for their replies and I will update this thread as more listening impressions become available or when I make my purchasing decision in the coming months. Have a nice day!

That Naim doesn't play SACD, does it? I'm thinking of upgrading SACD players and it sounds really interesting.

None of the NAIM digital source components play either SA-CD or DVD-Audio to the best of my knowledge and my experiences at a few authorized NAIM dealers in my area. You will have to try other manufacturers.

Thanks Welly. I'm really enjoying this thread. When I bought the Meridian 508.24 a long time ago, I absolutely fell in love with it. I told myself that I will only buy Meridians from that point on because it was so much better than anything I had heard to that point. In fact, I wasn't a believer that there was much differences between multi-thousand dollar sources until I heard that Meridian.

If they adopted SACD, I would be first in line to purchase their players again. But because I listen to only classical, and have a few dozen SACDs, I need that capacity. You can't go wrong with that 808i, and I wish you the best of luck.

seacard:

You and I have some things in common. Meridians really reproduce classical and opera music exceptionally well. So much so that I instantly knew the G08 was superior to my previous Ayre Acoustics CX-7 Evolution. What Meridians get right is balance - tonal purity, even frequency response, and acoustical cues versus pure digital resolution and detail retrieval. That last part is very hard to get right in terms of balance and it is probably what analog still beats digital in. However, the 808i gets it more right in these areas (among everything else) that no Ayre or other Meridians get right in totality. Unfortunately, the really crazy expensive sources capture and reproduce all of the "audiophile hot buttons" together sounding right. Oh well.

I just bought some good Janine Jansen, Anna Netrebko CDs on Amazon. I can not wait to get them and take them back to my Meridian dealers next week.