Non Naim owner - well nearly!

Posted by: Jez Quigley on 19 September 2000

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a much younger man than me who lived in harmony with his Linn Sondek/Ittock/Naim32/Hi-cap/250/Mission 770's.

The wicked Fairy Divorce took away all his posessions and left him to wander the world with only a Sony Walkman professional.

In time he managed to gather around him a JVC CD player, a Pioneer 400 amp, and a pair of Epos 14's. He didn't use them all that much, but they were much better than nothing. His gold and silver never amounted to enough to re-enter the fabled land of Linn/Naim, and gradually the memory faded and what gold and silver he did amass he used to buy lots of PC equipment.

Then one day his travels took him to the evil second-hand shop where lots of Aiwa, Technics, and Panasonic torture instruments were to be found. But to his amazement, nestled among them was a lonely Meridian pre-amp and power amp. This treasure was unrecognised by the Goblin who's place it was, and the Goblin thought that the old man who offered to buy it for £50 was a fool.

The Meridian worked it's magic on the Old Man, and soon he was free again and was joined by the beautiful nymph 'Linn Karik'. NAC5 joined the party. Now the Meridian is back at the Meridian Magic Forge having it's magic powers renewed. And the Old Man? He is spending his time until it's return sharing his joy on this fantastic Naim forum.

Posted on: 20 September 2000 by Chris Metcalfe
.... you're Paul Benson !!
Posted on: 20 September 2000 by Jez Quigley
Laughs out loud!

I'm not Paul Benson, but I remember his time at Hi-Fi Answers, so you have me squarely dated and pidgeon holed.

BTW does anyone know what Paul is doing now? I have been away from hi-fi for a long time and haven't heard anything of him since his fall from grace.

Posted on: 24 September 2000 by NAIM-Collector
I have recently revisited the Meridian 105 power amp. I listened to one many years ago and now I have purchased a unit.
I made some mods to this unit to make it simpler to connect to my system.
I have attatched a J-Peg showing these changes, the most significant improvement was providing a seperate AC supply cable, not chaining the supply from the pre-amp etc.
Sound wise the difference is mainly NAIM (135) more authority in the bottom end and Meridian a bit sweeter in the top end.
Very happy with the Meridian power amp, I don't hold the 103 pre-amp with the same respect.
Good luck with the Hi-Fi odessey

Posted on: 27 September 2000 by Vik
It was due to the horrific reliability problems I endured with 2 Meridien MCAs and 2 Meridien MCDs that I threw my arms up in despair and vowed never to touch hi-fi from the UK again.

I owe it to the NACD3.0 for smashing that belief to smithereens.

I should think latter day Meridiens are much better (reliable), or they'd be out of business.
Still, when I was offered the Meridien M10 active speaker for a song the other day, my first instinct was to run like hell.

But the sound..... WoW!

Vik