My Meridian is here
Oct 4, 2002 at 7:20 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 27

DanG

Headphoneus Supremus
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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.
 
Oct 4, 2002 at 8:04 PM Post #3 of 27
Very glad you like it, after all my ramblings.

The Meridians seem to be the best at this 'ease' you speak of. I'm certainly jealous!
 
Oct 8, 2002 at 8:40 PM Post #4 of 27
honestly... i think meridians perform similarily to accuphase cdp's. Still nothing compared to vinyl at that price point though
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Oct 8, 2002 at 9:35 PM Post #6 of 27
Quote:

Originally posted by TimSchirmer
honestly... i think meridians perform similarily to accuphase cdp's. Still nothing compared to vinyl at that price point though
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And yet you don't know the price point of my player.
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Plus, there's no way I'd want to deal with storing LPs in my messy dorm room.
 
Oct 9, 2002 at 3:03 PM Post #8 of 27
Quote:

Originally posted by andrzejpw
Congrats dan! The meridian headroom had on the WOH tour made my jaws drop. . .


it made my jaw drop too, at how astoundingly ugly it was. sound is more important than looks but damn does that company need to hire a new guy for their aesthetics department.

glad to hear it sounds good. i think the cary 308 is much sexier looking though.
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Oct 9, 2002 at 4:07 PM Post #9 of 27
Clearly we don't share aesthetical values.
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The Cary 308 looks flashy and tacky to me with its blue shiny glass on the front. I think the Meridian looks very good because it is so under-stated. The buttons may look ugly, but they're far better in function than on the Cary 308 where the buttons are small and easy to miss. The Meridian is also much more compact than the Cary, yet the tray and the entire machine is much sturdier. The transport is generally accepted to be much better on the Meridian than on the Cary units.
 
Oct 12, 2002 at 12:26 AM Post #10 of 27
I like the look of the Meridian better also.
I know the Cary cd players use a Philips cdm12.? transport.
What does the Meridian use?
The Philips cdm12 are very cheap but very good transports.
I'm interested in what the Meridian uses if it is generally thought to be better.
 
Oct 12, 2002 at 12:59 AM Post #11 of 27
I'll second Grinch's opinion. Meridians are butt-ugly but sound good - a good combination if you're in college, I guess, where the butt-ugliness will act as a theft deterrent. After all, you'd have to be a pretty dedicated audiophile to actually /want/ something that looks like that - and in that case, you can probably afford your own Meridian.
 
Oct 12, 2002 at 2:54 AM Post #13 of 27
Meridian 508.24 uses a Philips CDM12.something transport, but Meridian rewrote the driver/servo controller software to improve its audio performance (they claim, I don't know how). I'd take a Meridian CD player over a Cary player any day of the week --- the Meridian is simply well-engineered, and the Cary is well ... unmentionable.

--Andre
 
Oct 12, 2002 at 5:37 AM Post #14 of 27
(I'd take a Meridian CD player over a Cary player any day of the week --- the Meridian is simply well-engineered, and the Cary is well ... unmentionable.)

I have no doubt that the Meridian is a fine player, however I'd be interested in any specifics that you might offer on why you think the Meridian is well engineered, and the Cary is unmentionable.

I've had a number of Cary players and they all seem fine to me. One thing I would mention however, is that if my Google search was correct, when the 508.20 was current, it was a $3,000 retail player, while the 308 is a $1,500 retail player. (And discounted from there.)

If it means anything to your argument, a poster by the moniker of Abe Collins, over at AA has posted many blood and guts pics of the inside of the Cary units. They look pretty nicely put together to me.
 
Oct 12, 2002 at 12:59 PM Post #15 of 27
Quote:

Originally posted by AndreYew
Meridian 508.24 uses a Philips CDM12.something transport, but Meridian rewrote the driver/servo controller software to improve its audio performance (they claim, I don't know how). I'd take a Meridian CD player over a Cary player any day of the week --- the Meridian is simply well-engineered, and the Cary is well ... unmentionable.

--Andre


They us the same transport then. (with modified powersupplies etc. I'm sure).
I doubt that the Meridian's transport can be much better than the Cary in that case...

It's cool that the cdm12 transport is used from $100 players to $3000 players.
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