Video Asylum

Posted by hwahlee (A) on May 14, 2004 at 06:01:56

In Reply to: Best 5 channel processor or receiver for sound quality? posted by simon wagstaaff on May 14, 2004 at 04:31:04:

What's your budget? I was in your same situation as being primarily a 2 channel listener. I decided to take the plunge into multi-channel when I started seeing the deals available for the older Meridian 5 series stuff. Even after the discounts by my local dealer, the Meridian 568.2MM still isn't cheap by most people's standards. But after hooking up the processor to my system, I haven't looked back. I used to run my Classe CDP.3 but after comparing the sound to the Meridian I haven't used the Classe in months. I also picked up the matching Meridian 598DP as a transport but the addition of the 598 was as dramatic as the 568 was in my system. So you can probably be satisified in using whatever transport you have now to pump digital into the 568. The 568.2s can be had for around $3k or less. If you don't intend on getting a Meridian transport you don't have to worry about the MM upgrade. One downside to the Meridian 5 series stuff is that there isn't a practical way to run SACD.