Bryston SP2 vs Meridian 861

If your main player is the 596 than go for the Meridian. The DAC's in the 861 and G68 are the same if not better.

I had a G68 which was the best sounding digital pre-amp for music I have ever owned. Movies were also the best with the G68.

D_Edwards can answer this better than me but I believe the G68 sounds very close to the 861 but will save you a ton of money.

I recently sold my G68 but not to upgrade but rather downgrade. There is just not enough time in the day to fully enjoy it and felt it was going to waste as a glorified football watching sound system.
If I had more time to spend watching movies and listening to music I would have kept the G68 without question.

Hope this helps.

Mike

This is probably a silly question, considering that Meridian is known for digital technology, and the price difference between the 861 and SP2 has to speak for something. But I just have to ask. Has anybody compared the SP2 and 861 when a digital source (preferably a CD player) is plugged into their respective digital input. I am still talking about 2-channel music listening. However we are now using a digital source and the direct comparison between the 2 pieces of equipment.

Apparently Stereophile praises the digital side of SP2 so much that I am wondering if the 861 is really worth the money. The remainder of my system is the Ayre V5xe driving the Infinity Prelude MTS on the stereo side. So from the absolute sense, does 861 really outperform SP2 on 2-channel digital? And from the relative sense, in order to hear the difference between 861 and SP2 digitally, does it take much better equipment than what I have?

I prefer the sound of the 861 to the SP2 with digital input but I rarely listened to either in stereo. I suspect it's the same as with MCH. However, the 861 has MRC and the SP2 doesn't so that may make some difference.

Kal