Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews

Because, most of the time, I used the Meridian gear as a complete system, only limited comparisons were made to specific reference equipment. However, the resident system at the time of the Meridian auditions was as follows:

Digital sources: California Audio Labs CL20 DVD/CD player, Meridian 508-24 CD player, Mark Levinson No.360 D/A converter.
Preamplifiers: Klyne 6L3.3P, Sonic Frontiers Line 3.
Power amplifiers: McCormack DNA-1 (with Rev.A modifications), Sonic Frontiers Power 2.
Loudspeakers: PSB Gold-i.
Cables: Interconnects: Cardas Cross & Golden Cross; Straight Wire Virtuoso; JPS Balanced Super-Conductor 2. Speaker cables: Straight Wire Maestro.

In addition, I adapted my weekend system to 5.1 channels so that I could try to learn more about the effects of multichannel sound in isolation from the system under test. This much more modest and quite different system consisted of:

Digital sources: California Audio Labs CL-20 DVD/CD player, Pioneer PD-7700 DVD player, MSB LinkDAC, CAL Audio Sigma DAC.
Preamplification: Meridian 201, Technics SH-AC500D digital processor.
Front channels: Adcom GFA-555 power amplifier (with regulated power supply), Paradigm Esprit Bipolar loudspeakers, Straight Wire Teflon-12 speaker cables.
Rear Channels: Parasound Z-Amp power amplifier, Celestion MP-1 loudspeakers, Straight Wire Teflon-12 speaker cables.
Subwoofer: Canton SW-22 (active).---Kalman Rubinson