[Chris J]

I just purchased this combo, quite by coincidence!  I am glad that Jude hears what I felt to be the great performance of the pair.  I'm feeding it from my iTunes files played by PureAudio software, although it sounds best with upsampling turned off.  Meridian has some proprietary processing and doesn't need the features of PureAudio S/W.  Yet, I have files with multiple rates and depths, and PureAudio manages those changes well, outputting the native file rate of each file.  iTunes doesn't do that, although one can set Audio Midi Setup to 192k... but then you are listening to iTunes poor upsampling. 

Unfortunately, I am getting more ill (tumors in multiple bones and tissues, and spreading), and may not see the end of 2014, or even 6 months from now.  But the gear is giving me lots of pleasure and didn't break the bank. Indulge while I can! 

Even sooner, I might lose hearing due to the most aggressive chemo that they have in their arsenal. Very ototoxic.  It starts with treble and goes from there... and there is also the possibility of sudden hearing loss.  

I would welcome volunteers interested to buy this pair when my future-widow get stuck selling off my gear.  Send me a PM if you don't mind waiting until "I'm done" with them. Lots of other stuff (RSA SR-71B, Arrow 4G, HD650 with 2 Cardas cables—one balanced for the RSA—and tons of accessories and records/SACDs etc.  I can't bring myself to spend my last weeks selling stuff!)

So sorry to hear about your troubles, mate.
Have you tried posting some ads on Audiogon and Head Fi?
I've had good success selling some gear on those two websites.

 

[zackzack]

Wall wart & Meridian....

 

[smial1966]

Wall wart & Meridian....

 

[starstern]

Liquid Gold Balanced SS Amplifier   vs prime headphome amp anyone compared ?

 

[smial1966]

Good grief, why the huge and lurid coloured text?!?

[COLOR=000000][COLOR=ABBB01]Liquid Gold Balanced SS Amplifier   vs prime headphome amp anyone compared ?[/COLOR][/COLOR]

 

[starstern]

Apologize if that aggravates you ;its was just as i couldn't changed the color to dark so i made it good with increase the size ,as well don't find  edit icon  to improve much neither 

 

[zackzack]

You know how to make an entrance I can give you that

 

[zackzack]

Anyone compares this to McIntosh D100 yet? That will be interesting

 

[Stil]

  Anyone compares this to McIntosh D100 yet? That will be interesting

I listened to this at my dealer directly comparing the two.  I tested using an LCD-X.  While the meridian sounded really good (Better than the Director), compared to the D100, it was a bit more clouded/veiled sounding.  Sources were from Optical for both units, was listening mostly to rock.  The D100 sounded more neutral, with a bit less haze.  
 
I did play with the crossfeed settings on the Prime and they change the sound, some settings are better for some sounds than others.  If I was to use those settings, setting 1 would probably be the one I would use.
 
The headphone was driven directly from the Prime HP out and the D100 HP out when comparing.  
 
Note:  This is the Prime w/o the new power supply, it was using the wall wart it came with, so your mile may vary.

 

[zackzack]

  I listened to this at my dealer directly comparing the two.  I tested using an LCD-X.  While the meridian sounded really good (Better than the Director), compared to the D100, it was a bit more clouded/veiled sounding.  Sources were from Optical for both units, was listening mostly to rock.  The D100 sounded more neutral, with a bit less haze.  
 
I did play with the crossfeed settings on the Prime and they change the sound, some settings are better for some sounds than others.  If I was to use those settings, setting 1 would probably be the one I would use.
 
The headphone was driven directly from the Prime HP out and the D100 HP out when comparing.  
 
Note:  This is the Prime w/o the new power supply, it was using the wall wart it came with, so your mile may vary.

 
Yes, that's right. The Power Supply. That is the one thing. The power supply that can be connected to the Prime also has a USB processing, supposedly to clean noisy interference. But some say that cleaning up the signal also robs it of its clarity.

 

[Chris J]

Yes, that's right. The Power Supply. That is the one thing. The power supply that can be connected to the Prime also has a USB processing, supposedly to clean noisy interference. But some say that cleaning up the signal also robs it of its clarity.

Now that's an odd statement: "cleaning up the signal robs it of it's clarity".
That is rather counter-intuitive?
Just curious, why would you say that?

 

[buson160man]

Come on this thing costs two thousand dollars and it comes with a wall wart power supply. This thing looks like a toy compared to something like the schiit middle priced offerings. I find it hard to believe this toy sounds anywhere near as good. Meridian is a rip off on a lot of their offerings. Some of them sound ok but their pricing is ridiculous.
   You can do much better with a lot of offerings in the primes price range. and probably something that costs a lot less.
 I would like to compare this thing to my ray samuels raptor I doubt it could hold a candle to it as a headphone amp.
  The power supply that comes with my raptor embarrasses the wall wart supply on this way overpriced thing.
Meridian must think they are something special to charge this much for so little.(spelled rip off)

 

[x838nwy]

[COLOR=000000][COLOR=ABBB01]Liquid Gold Balanced SS Amplifier   vs prime headphome amp anyone compared ?[/COLOR][/COLOR]

I have, though on separate occasions. And no, the prime isn't even close to matching the LAu. I'm not some kind of cavalli fan boy (but mr.cavalli is a great guy) but there really is no comparison that can be reasonably made, imo.

It was a short listen - 30 mins or so. But i felt the amp side of things i think it would be more sensible to compare the prime to my Lehmann Linear. Refined and detailed. Doesn't come anywhere close to the cavalli's layering and dynamics but a decent amplifier. I felt the prime's treble was smoother, but i cannot be certain. The rest, to these ears, sound very similar.

I didn't play with gain settings but it did an ok job with the shop's lcd-3.

The Dac side for which i had high hopes, was... Best left unused.

I don't mind that it comes with a wallwart. It could come with a mule and a bucket of ketchup as far as i'm concerned. But to me, while the Prime is a very solid effort on Meridian's part my humble opinion is that they priced it wrong. Buy the Hugo.

 

[starstern]

ok forget the BAKOON got something better to ask about comparison  http://www.masskobo.com/e/sale-e/m394.htm to the Liquid Gold Balanced SS Amplifier   ???

 

[Gnomeplay]

I just purchased this combo, quite by coincidence!  I am glad that Jude hears what I felt to be the great performance of the pair.  I'm feeding it from my iTunes files played by PureAudio software, although it sounds best with upsampling turned off.  Meridian has some proprietary processing and doesn't need the features of PureAudio S/W.  Yet, I have files with multiple rates and depths, and PureAudio manages those changes well, outputting the native file rate of each file.  iTunes doesn't do that, although one can set Audio Midi Setup to 192k... but then you are listening to iTunes poor upsampling. 

Unfortunately, I am getting more ill (tumors in multiple bones and tissues, and spreading), and may not see the end of 2014, or even 6 months from now.  But the gear is giving me lots of pleasure and didn't break the bank. Indulge while I can! 

Even sooner, I might lose hearing due to the most aggressive chemo that they have in their arsenal. Very ototoxic.  It starts with treble and goes from there... and there is also the possibility of sudden hearing loss.  

I would welcome volunteers interested to buy this pair when my future-widow get stuck selling off my gear.  Send me a PM if you don't mind waiting until "I'm done" with them. Lots of other stuff (RSA SR-71B, Arrow 4G, HD650 with 2 Cardas cables—one balanced for the RSA—and tons of accessories and records/SACDs etc.  I can't bring myself to spend my last weeks selling stuff!)

This is probably the most heart wrenching thing I've read on Headfi.

Best of luck and God Bless.