I'm now the proud and satisfied owner of a four-day old Meridian 808.3 Signature Reference CD player.
I won't be organizing my thoughts and observations in a nice orderly piece of essay but I'll just state them as they come to mind. I'm not too good at using audiophile terms and jargon either.
So here goes. Wow....oh boy....yeehaaaw! It paid off! My gamble paid off! I had no opportunity to listen to the 808.3 in a dealer's demo room, let alone auditioning it in my home with the rest of my system. So I had to do a lot of reading and research of reviews, both online and physical magazines. I had to "listen" and "compare" various products like dCS Puccini, EMM Labs XDS1, Playback Designs MPS-5, Esoteric K-01 through the ears of magazine reviewers. I had to resort to asking questions and comparing notes with forummers like the good folks here. I do know the sonic character of the rest of my components and speakers, so after much "auditioning" the 808.3 with the others I just listed, I made a judgment call and went for it.
What a buy! The 808.3 is indeed a state-of-the-art player. It is extraordinarily revealing. It's just 4 days old and I'm already hearing so much low-level detail and transients in a given piece of music/song. In terms of transparency, the 808.3 trumps my previous player, the widely-acclaimed Esoteric X-03 SE SACD/CD player. Mind you, I'm comparing a 4-day old 808.3 to a player that has clocked over 1,000 hours.
Ok, I think I'm tired. So that's it for today.....to be continued.....
Meanwhile, here's something for your reading pleasure: http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/news/article.asp?a=10142
I won't be organizing my thoughts and observations in a nice orderly piece of essay but I'll just state them as they come to mind. I'm not too good at using audiophile terms and jargon either.
So here goes. Wow....oh boy....yeehaaaw! It paid off! My gamble paid off! I had no opportunity to listen to the 808.3 in a dealer's demo room, let alone auditioning it in my home with the rest of my system. So I had to do a lot of reading and research of reviews, both online and physical magazines. I had to "listen" and "compare" various products like dCS Puccini, EMM Labs XDS1, Playback Designs MPS-5, Esoteric K-01 through the ears of magazine reviewers. I had to resort to asking questions and comparing notes with forummers like the good folks here. I do know the sonic character of the rest of my components and speakers, so after much "auditioning" the 808.3 with the others I just listed, I made a judgment call and went for it.
What a buy! The 808.3 is indeed a state-of-the-art player. It is extraordinarily revealing. It's just 4 days old and I'm already hearing so much low-level detail and transients in a given piece of music/song. In terms of transparency, the 808.3 trumps my previous player, the widely-acclaimed Esoteric X-03 SE SACD/CD player. Mind you, I'm comparing a 4-day old 808.3 to a player that has clocked over 1,000 hours.
Ok, I think I'm tired. So that's it for today.....to be continued.....
Meanwhile, here's something for your reading pleasure: http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/news/article.asp?a=10142