Grade A

Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier

The Meridian Prime DAC / Headphone Amplifier looks like shit. The colours dividing the sections looks nice, but are out of place in such a small level component. The front panel looks cheap and spotty. The font is a nice selection, how, the roundness to the knob is nice, and the little colour is tasty, never the less. The visual theme is nice, Mondrian, but out of place in the scale. On the top panel, the only item that hints of any value is the top plate itself, which is rounded, and the inset. Otherwise, the component looks cheap and of poor quality. On the rear, the input RCA connectors look of good quality, however the tops are lopped off, and the output jacks strangely look poorer. This is strange for what is likely intended to be a PC component. The 1/4" jacks should be of greater quality, visually, as there is a lot of plugging-and-unplugging there. The USB input seems poor, given that it is a micro connector, for this size of component, and the power input should be an IEC C13/14. On the interior, everything is the opposite. Everything looks spectacular, actually, especially the capacitors: the board and component selection and layout look just top notch. Only the quality of the RCA, 1/4" and 1/8" connectors looks suspicious. The interior quality of the 1/4" connectors looks great, however, it's just the look of the plastic that looks shoddy.

We'd recommend those interested in the Meridian Prime D/A headphone amplifier, check out the PS Audio DirectStream DAC and Sprout, for that look, instead, although the comportment here is excellent.



It's a bit like the Meridian Explorer DAC / Headphone Amplifier. Even at $300, we would not buy it.

Product: Meridian Prime DAC / Headphone Amplifier

Price: $2000.00 USD
Value: $200 (10/100) What's not to like about the Oppo, we wonder?