What's Wrong in Hi-Fidelity

Meridian - www.meridian-audio.co.uk - Huntingdon, UK

Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier USB DAC - Front Panel

Cute, but why is the Prime not $200.00 but $2000.00 USD? There's no power supply. An iFi model would be $200.00. Meridian, a $1250.00 add-on option. Good for Meridian. By pricing this model at $2000.00 they set it to be equivalent to an Apple iMac 27". So take your $2000.00 USD computer base, and add a $2000 Meridian headphone amplifier, and then a $1250.00 Meridian power supply, all to power a $649.00 headphone which you got on Amazon.com, the Sennheiser HD 700, if we are to go by their promotional literature.


http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-700-Headphone-Black/dp/B0070U8KSM

Would a $169.00 headphone amplifier / DAC like our cheeky AudioEngine D1 do just as well? Like the Meridian, it does not include a USB power supply. Yet, drives our Stax amp, quite nicely.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/first-listen-meridian-prime-headphone-amplifier-usbdac/

In Sennheiser land, $2000.00 will get you a truly awesome Sennheisier HDVD-800 headphone amplifier / DAC, which also includes 24/192 support, like the Meridian. Not only that, but it includes a built-in power supply, not relying on the USB for that. Plus, you'll get balanced headphone outputs, a great industrial case design of modern elegance, a great potentiometer (analogue volume control), and genuine XLR inputs and outputs, so you can also use it as a per-amplifer for your hi-fi.

You won't get Meridian's "Analogue Signal Processing (ASP)" to be fair but you will have room in your wallet to pick up a top-line Sennheiser HD-800 which includes far better imagining than the 700 model that Meridian seems to have in mind for their "Prime" headphone amp.

Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier - Internal Circuit

Can you see what's wrong with the picture? It may be us, but their PCB looks quite good actually, but a far cry from Bruno Putzy's nCore, and certainly Devialet. Certain components just look cheap, as does the case work.

We imagine it's a quite good component, just priced above the competition, feature for feature, component for component, build for build, and is relying on the Meridian brand for recognition. In our words, sensing this, we would say that Meridian now ... travels a middle-path between obsolescence and mediocrity in product placement.

There's nothing wrong with the picture. It's a good one. The problem we see is in the august design capability of the Meridian component and component packaging vs. the suggested retail price (SRP) and playback capability (PC).

Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifiier / DAC - $2000.00 USD. Meridian Audio.

What's Wrong in Hi-Fidelity

Micromega - www.micromega-hifi.com - Boissy St-Léger, France

Heckle my shekles, it's the Micromega MyDac! At $399.00 USD, or let's just say $400.00 it's twice the DAC of the Coffee by Calyx we use to partner with our Rotel RB-980BX.

Micromega MyDac with PC

Twice the DAC, 24/192 vs 24/96 at resolution, twice the price, but what's going on with the case? Is the knob wheel something to turn and break? What's with the combination of cheap plastic, and even cheaper looking screen printing?

Remember the Micromega Trio? That was a statement in design. And a well-built product. One you could yet get today, and use quite effectively, as you could the MyDAC for that matter.

Micromega Trio CD Transport and Power Supply

Er, we like the Micromega MyGroov and MyZik products actually, and could see you (or ourselves) using them with the MyDAC in a system, but the design just screams product obsolescence at the in-built and design level.

We like the MyGroov because turntables in our experience are fragile things.
 
Compared to Holm Acoustics? And from Micromega, maker of the famous Micromega Trio?

For $400.00 USD it's not as well made as the $80 FiiO Olympus or the $200.00 Calyx Coffee.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/product-preview-micromega-mydac-the-399-miracle/

ASI ((Acoustic System International)) - International

Aside from the error of assuming Hi Fi is Art, as we do, there's nothing wrong with ASI's Franck Tschang. His products exude elegance through simplicity. We like them a lot. Not his website, particularly, through it's use of graphic pebbles and elegant frames, it seems ...

His electronic components are as if Threshold met YBA in aesthetic simplicity. What we mean is as if the Threshold preamplifier T2 design was applied to the frameworld of the YBA Signature series, and updated for today's component technology, it might well result in ASI's level of achievement.

Perfectly well thought design, but look at the back panel. Should you be moving such a behemoth, wouldn't an indented placement of rear connectors allow you to temporarily rest it on it's back; given it's weight, and the masculinity of the design, shouldn't it's fragile connections be better set?

This is nit-picking, but let us say that at this level it would great if products were perfect.

Acoustic System International Live Line Preamplifier

The same above comment can be applied to his wonderful Grand Mono amplifier. Were the rear-connectors inset from the back panel, it would allow temporary placement of the product on all six sides.

ASI Grand Mono Amplifier (rear-panel connectors)

We should look to Avantgarde. They take an rather obsolete fidelity production technique (horn loading) and seem to make it both an art and science. They have a beautiful office, which is much to our material interest.

Just as one would like to see desk-models of chairs, one would wish to see models of Avantgarde speakers in the $500 range. By models, we mean models.

Things one would collect and place in a display.

In a room, much must be done to make the aesthetic as attractive as the elegant object d'art.

See below for one typical example of where people's leaning and high fidelity literally collide.

Missing: The 3rd Bass Horn
The Placement and Room