Used Meridian DSP5000

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Discussion

benz0

Original Poster:

339 posts

132 months

Friday 27th November 2015
quotequote all
Currently have a set of B&W DM303 speakers with a T-amp on general hifi and TV audio duties.

I'm keen to upgrade to something significantly better in terms of sound quality, soundstage and listenability (I find the current set up harsh and fatiguing on the ears).

I've read a lot of people praising Meridian gear, and it would seem that some bargains can be had second hand, particularly the DSP5000. I particularly like that they are active and include the DAC, thus reducing additional boxes required, and removing the itch to tinker with and upgrade them.

I wanted to ask if anyone has any views on how reliable these speakers are, and if there is anything in particular I should be looking out for, if I was to buy a 20 year old set, such as.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Meridian-DSP-5000-Digita...

Are spares still available? Are huge borkages likely, and if so, are we talking thousands for repairs?

Also, can they be fully set-up and configured using just the remote control or is another unit required?



Edited by benz0 on Friday 27th November 10:02

carlymart

607 posts

213 months

Friday 27th November 2015
quotequote all
I love them and sold quite a few pairs in my former life. not sure about spares though. I have some m30 active meridians and mangled to get replacement drive units etc,
The link is to my old shop too

DavidJG

3,507 posts

131 months

Friday 27th November 2015
quotequote all
benz0 said:
Currently have a set of B&W DM303 speakers with a T-amp on general hifi and TV audio duties.

I'm keen to upgrade to something significantly better in terms of sound quality, soundstage and listenability (I find the current set up harsh and fatiguing on the ears).

I've read a lot of people praising Meridian gear, and it would seem that some bargains can be had second hand, particularly the DSP5000. I particularly like that they are active and include the DAC, thus reducing additional boxes required, and removing the itch to tinker with and upgrade them.

I wanted to ask if anyone has any views on how reliable these speakers are, and if there is anything in particular I should be looking out for, if I was to buy a 20 year old set, such as.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Meridian-DSP-5000-Digita...

Are spares still available? Are huge borkages likely, and if so, are we talking thousands for repairs?

Also, can they be fully set-up and configured using just the remote control or is another unit required?



Edited by benz0 on Friday 27th November 10:02
I've got some Meridian kit at the core of my HiFi, some of which goes back to 1997. Not had a failure yet - and a couple of my friends run similar without problems.



benz0

Original Poster:

339 posts

132 months

Friday 27th November 2015
quotequote all
Thanks guys,

Are there any major drawbacks to the 18 bit version, other than not being able to do high res?

Presumably I can just connect with Coax from a Sonos connect and won't have any issues with bitrate?

legzr1

3,843 posts

138 months

Saturday 28th November 2015
quotequote all
All your questions should be answered by a quick look here:

http://www.meridianunplugged.com/ubbthreads/ubbthr...


A streamer into the 5000's is a neat and elegant solution and should give quite good results (especially if using FLAC / lossless files - feeding MP3 into those Meridians would be a waste).

The only 'possible' issue I can think of is one that crops up with modern streamers feeding older legacy DACS (as fitted to the Merdians) now and again - some older DACS have occasional issues locking on to the digital stream from re deters but I'm guessing the Sonos will be well implemented.

It would be good if you were close to the seller so you could try before buying.

The lack of hi-res support shouldn't be a concern - I don't think Sonos supports it anyway.


I've owned older passive Meridians (A500 - similar cabinet and drive units to the dsp5000) and listened at length to the DSP models - they're very good.