Meridian 808.2 CD Player......

I own a Meridian 808.2. I bought it a couple of months ago. While I listened to, and compared it to, a few other players, I did not attempt to listen to a wide variety of other CD players. A home audition of the Meridian (and two other players) sold me on the 808.2. In addition to the apodising filter (which really does make poorly recorded CDs sound better), I was (and continue to be) favorably impressed by the soundstage it throws. I have a very difficult room (there is no side wall for the left speaker; there is instead a large opening into another room). I had bought a preamp with balance controls because of that problem. But on many of my CDs the Meridian's soundstage is good enough to render a balance control unnecessary. After getting the Meridian, I sold my preamp and bought a better one without a balance control.
My major complaint regarding the Meridian is that its fixed output is set at a high level. I suppose that that was done in order to achievce an optimal signal to noise ratio for the Meridian. But it does mean that in fixed output mode you will get a very high volume level if you crank up your preamp. The Meridian, however, does have a variable output mode, with volume controlled by the remote. That is primarily intended to allow the Meridian to be connected directly to an amp, with volume controlled by the CD player. I didn't experiment to see how well that may work on a preamp, since my new preamp has remarkable signal to noise ratios at virtually all volume settings.

the Meridian was amongst the player I auditioned extensively while looking for a new CDP.All I can say is that it is amongst the best I have heard;What do I like about it?

1.Very uncolored sound;you get a very coherent player top to bottom,maybe tilted ever so slightly on the 'warmer'sound..

2.Transparent with lots of low level details with soudstage to die for.

What I strongly do not like about the Meridian

1.The transport.It reminds me of my car CD player;though how they managed to get such wonderful sound from such 'flimsy' transport is beyond my comprehension.

2.Doesn't play SACD.

In the end I ended up with the dcs Puccini.It was quite an easy choice in the end,because to my Ears the Puccini was distinctively superior sonically with every regards[I am talking about redbook Cd playback,not Meridian CD vsPuccini SACD}.

Fafafion is right. Forget what John Atkinson said about dcs and meridian. It is the red book performance what makes puccini so special.(I prefer redbook over Sacd) Plus you always get it upgraded by dCS. But not the Meridian!

"Forget what John Atkinson said about dcs and meridian. It is the red book performance what makes puccini so special"

Meridian 802.2 is not SACD player. John Atkinson was talking about Meridian's redbook performance.

The fact that the Puccini plays SACDs (whereas the Meridian does not)is, in my opinion, a very strong point in the Puccini's favor. But there is something in dCs's marketing that I dislike. The Puccini is advertised as a marvelous one-box player. But then we are told that for several thousand dollars more we can buy a master clock for the Puccini that will improve its sound. This not only brings the total price close to $25,000, but the marketing strategy bothers me. I would prefer a one-box player to be a one-box player. A preamp option at an additional cost would not cast a shadow on buying a player. But having to purchase (at a significant sum) a clock option in order to get a better sound does, in my opinion, cast a shadow on the purchase of a Puccini.