[DanG]

Please excuse my lay-person terminology -- when a layman like me says "transport," he means the entire box. They both do use the Philips, though the 508.20 does not use the same transport as the Cary 308 as the 508's transport is no longer made.

I also don't know how much of a difference this makes (again, layman talking), but the Meridian has you put the CD directly onto the transport (the thing that comes out is big), whereas the Cary has a little tray that comes out and picks up the CD.

 

[kelly]

My rough understanding about Cary is that the 306/200 is well engineered. The 303/200 is the 306/200 with more affordable parts and some of the over the top stuff removed (ie, Max vs MOH). The 308 is basically the "cut every corner we could to make it mass market" and those type of things are rarely good for price/performance. Of course, I haven't heard any of them myself.

I DEEPLY considered buying a Meridian 588 after hearing the one on the HeadRoom tour. The source I have in the pipes will end up costing me the same amount. Maybe it will be better--I doubt I'll have opportunity to AB them.

Looks are not all that important to me. I prefer black and an easy to read screen on the front is nice but my equipment goes in a rack regardless.

 

[ian]

Now Dan, if you really have balls, try picking up your Meridian by the tray. It works!!! And it doesn't break anything!! Now that is good engineering

 

[DanG]

Ahem, I'll leave that to you. No need for two people with the same custom-title, and I like mine very much right now, thank you!

Anyway, I took a few photos of my Meridian but my digital camera didn't want to interface with WinXP. I'll try to buy a flashcard at Best Buy and a reader tomorrow so that I can start taking digital shots of my gear again to share with you guys.

 

[kerelybonto]

Dan, did you try 'Add New Hardware' when you had your camera hooked up? WinXP will probably find it as a removable drive. ...

kerely

 

[DanG]

WinXP did the auto-install, but the removable disk doesn't show up in my list of drives. It used to show up as drive "H" in WinME. Oh well, who knows. In any case, batteries get eaten up very fast when I use my camera as the picture-caddy, plust I only get 1 MB of storage. If I finally get a card, I can stop wasting batteries and also take more and higher-quality photos. Plus maybe I can get my sponsors to pay for it (I love being a college bum).

Anyway, the other thing I love about my Meridian (added bonus that I didn't know about) is that it has some sort of grooves on the end of the top of the box. When the pictures come out you'll see how I put them to use.

 

[MooGoesTheCow]

congrats on the mooooridian

welcome to the family!

and don't listen to ian. his mom picked him up by his head when he was a baby.

 

[AndreYew]

OK guys, I retract my comment about Cary now that I've had a look inside the 308 and 306 on the site previously mentioned. They're not unmentionably bad, but just kind of mediocre. Good things: they shield the transport separately, and they actually use pulse transformers on the digital outputs. Example of bad things: their DAC board with big ass through-hole bypass caps. There's no power supply-input filter, either. It looks like a lot of the cost is just in components, and not necessarily any design cleverness. Check out the insides of a Wadia, a TAG McLaren AV32R, or even the Arcam FMJ-23 for examples of good digital design.

--Andre

 

[ian]

I do have a big head, so its possible.
Actually, one kid picked me up by my head when I was little and hyperextended my neck (think: crack, you're an inch taller!). So I'm clearly not built as well as a Meridian.

 

[Calanctus]

I'm sure it's well built, and the Meridian guys are definitely innovators and industry leaders in various ways (MLP, digital speakers, etc.), but I definitely agree with those of you that said their players are UGLY!

 

[MooGoesTheCow]

Quote:

Originally posted by Calanctus I'm sure it's well built, and the Meridian guys are definitely innovators and industry leaders in various ways (MLP, digital speakers, etc.), but I definitely agree with those of you that said their players are UGLY!

that's perfectly understandable you think this. i mean, not all of us can be blessed with the gift of taste.

 

[Pr0crastin8r]

Quote:

Originally posted by DanG My Meridian 508.20 arrived today. After moving around a little of my furniture, I put the Meridian on the top shelf a bookshelf and moved my Air Matrix ICs from my soundcard's breakout box to the CD player. The sound so far is wonderful. The sound definitely has far more authority than the other players I've been used to -- the bass notes on Emanual Ax's piano and Yo-Yo Ma's cello on Brahms' Piano Quartet No.1 (Op.25, Sony Classical) are clearer and played with more ease than my Marantz CD6000OSE could achieve. Yet the same is true of the treble -- it's clearer and yet less abrasive than my Marantz player was. Everything has that characteristic -- ease. Soundstage has certainly expanded somewhat, but more importantly it's just natural. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to compare side-by-side with some other good CD players but until then I'll try to post further impressions in a week or two after having had some more time with the CDP.

oh yeah? oh yeah? well.... i saw emanuel ax LIVE... that beats any fancy schmancy cd player!


















actually, i'm just jealous. but i did see him live.