I listened to the Meridian G08 at San Francisco Stereo in Mountain View. Not a cheap place, but I don't think you find this type of equipment discounted that much. They were helpful as always, I recommend them.
I listened for a good two hours to rock/metal cds that I am familar with, using my RA-1 and MS-2.
Everyone says the G08 is close to analog sound out of a digital player. I haven't listened to records since I was a kid, and I'm in my mid-thirties now. Since I couldn't even remember what analog sounded like, I thought this would be interesting.
The largest change, and it was a clear one, is the smoothness of the sound. There just isn't much (really any, unless the recording is bad, and even then not much) sibilance, harshness, or grating. Now, I've heard smooth high end sources before, but they were boring and analytical, and not very musically cohesive. The Meridian isn't like that at all, it's emotionally involving and interesting. The interesting thing is that I was getting plenty of detail, without the accompanying brightness. I could listen for a far longer time without fatigue AND without being bored, the combo of which is huge.
I agree with those who say the Meridian is neither bright or neutral, it just provides music. It's just...right.
On the rock front, I listen to all kinds, but I particularly like harder rock and metal. For any rock that isn't hard, I think the Meridian is great. For hard rock/metal, it was 50/50 for me. I thought it was top notch on some recordings, on others I wasn't rocking out enough. But it was never bad on anything.
The Meridian is an awesome source, I really liked it. It probably failed the metal test too much for me to buy it, but I understand why so many people rave over it.