Meridian CD players, does anyone remember their first?

[TONEPUB]

Hey troops:

Do any of you remember the first Meridian CD player, from the early
80's, perhaps the model number? Im putting together a little background
on my review of the 808 and cant seem to recall which player they started with!

thanks as always....

[Metralla]

The MCD

[crooner]

Their first was based on the Philips CD101. It had the very robust CDM-1 swing arm mechanism and 14 bit TDA-1540 DACs.

The cabinet is similar to the original Philips player but painted in a dark gray color. It also adds additional electronics in a subchassis located at the bottom, making it look taller than the CD100/101.

Here's a link I found of a completed auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MERIDIAN-professional-type-CD101B-vintage-cd-player_W0QQitemZ290065682748QQihZ019QQca tegoryZ3272QQcmdZViewItem

http://i16.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/80/c6/11dd_1_b.JPG

http://www.joeres.de/cd101_2.jpg

[TONEPUB]

Cool, thanks a lot guys!! I just sent a list of questions to Bob Stuart, who spent quite a bit of time with me at CES. He's a very nice man in person
with a great sense of humor!

[Metralla]

Another photo

http://www.meridian-audio.com/images/400/MCDpro_400.jpg

[crooner]

I think this was the first sucessful attempt at a high-end CD player. Meridian took advantage of the 4X oversampling digital filter, unique to Philips at the time. The japanese were using single multiplexed 16 bit chips with no oversampling and complex analog brickwall filtering. Those sounded horrible.

The CDM-1 mechanism was also superior to the linear arm units the other manufacturers were using.

[Steve Hoffman]

Jeff,

I do. It hurt a little bit but it was over quickly, thank goodness.

[TONEPUB]

Steve-0:

As you well recall, they all sounded pretty scary back in the day!
Amazing how far they have come!

[triple]

They sounded bad, even though the transport mech in some of these oldtimers were waay better than todays plastic CD ROM drives and similar. Knowledgeable people say that the swing-arm transport mentioned above was the best Philips ever did. Sony is another example of this trend.

Contemporary CD players have improved considerably over the older stuff, but their drives are crappy.

No way to win for audiophiles...

Goran

[AudioEnz]

Jeff,

the MCD was Meridian's first CD player. It was basically a Philips (CD-100?) with various internal tweaks an a grey nextal (sp?) finsh on the outside.

The pictures shown are of Meridian's second CD player called the Pro-MCD. This was the player that had the extra section slung underneath. The Pro player was described by John Atkinson, then of Hi-Fi News, as the first classic CD player.

There's a very short history of their CD players on this Meridian web page (http://www.meridian-audio.com/p_cd_history.htm).

[grbl]

I never owned the MCD, but my first cd player was the Meridian 207 Pro. When I bought it in 1998 I thought it was a phenomenal player. Today I have the G08, which I really love.

[vinyl anachronist]

Steve-0:

As you well recall, they all sounded pretty scary back in the day!
Amazing how far they have come!

I had a Sony CDP-101. You don't have to tell me about scary!

[grbl]

I never owned the MCD, but my first cd player was the Meridian 207 Pro. When I bought it in 1998 I thought it was a phenomenal player. Today I have the G08, which I really love.

Did I say 1998? That should have said 1988.

[crooner]

I had a Sony CDP-101. You don't have to tell me about scary!

I had one too!
True, a sonic disaster but it was a very unique machine in many ways. The relay controlled "feather touch" plates were unique to this model, if I'm not mistaken.

[TONEPUB]

I remember that player!! I had a couple of buddies that had them...

[bodine]

Folks, you aint gonna believe this, but I own this classic first-generation Meridian, and it still plays! A little creaky, but it even plays most of my burned CD-rs!

[bodine]

....That would be the CD101B I'm referring to...

[LeeS]

To be honest, I have never liked the Meridian sound until recently. I feel they have always been over-priced relative to the sound quality.

[TONEPUB]

I agreed with you too, until I heard the 808...
Definitely a different animal. I had always found their
players a bit on the sterile side.

But the 808 is definitely one of the best I've heard...

[SamS]

Another photo

http://www.meridian-audio.com/images/400/MCDpro_400.jpg


I've listened to that one before. It has a funny 'powdered' kinda texture, right? Didn't sound like anything special.

The best CDP I ever heard was the Meridian 508.24. I'm sure that's been bested by the 8XX series, but man can Meridian make some nice digital players :agree:

[Russ]

I did a google search and can't find anything, what does this graph represent?

[Metralla]

I've listened to that one before. It has a funny 'powdered' kinda texture, right? Didn't sound like anything special.
Well, it sure sounded a million times better than the Sony!

[TONEPUB]

Im guessing it was the frequency response curve...

[TONEPUB]

Russ, is that a pic or do you actually own that player?

[Russ]

Im guessing it was the frequency response curve...
I guess that would be important. In case you forget, you can look at it every time you put in a CD. :)
Russ, is that a pic or do you actually own that player?
I copied it from the first page of this thread..I don't have one. It's kinda cool looking (in a 2010 space odyssey way)