HiFi review: Meridian F80

It's been way too long since I posted something here... let me make it up with a review of my new music system:

Though I would not describe myself as an audiophile, I am a music lover and spend a huge amount of my time at home listening to recorded music - HiFi, when I'm looking to buy it, is thus quite important to me. As a student, about 13 years ago, I replaced my crappy mini system with my first 'proper' system - Cambridge Audio separates and JPW Millenium 510 loudspeakers. About a year and a half later, thanks to a terrific deal at a HiFi shop, I traded the Cambridge Audio components for a Marantz CD-48 CD player and PM-66SE amplifier and have used this as my audio system ever since. Though entry-level, I've always found it to be good sounding and it has given me many many hours of listening pleasure over the years.

I had been thinking about replacing this system, as the CD player was becoming very sensitive to vibration and was refusing to play some CDs/tracks, but wasn't sure which way to go in terms of a replacement (partly because I'd started to wonder about the possibility of transferring my CD collection to lossless computer-based storage at some point). The matter was recently brought to a head by my decision to move to a new apartment with a beautifully light living room, full of floor-to-ceiling windows… and so some pretty serious furniture placing limitations. With basically one decent wall sans windows, I was going to have to almost completely cover this with bookshelves and would simply no longer have room for speakers on stands and full-size HiFi components. I needed to seek something compact but, as a music lover, I wanted something capable of sounding at least as good as my old Marantz/JPW system.

I discounted the small Bose systems immediately as I am familiar with their sound and don't think they are very good, so concentrated initially on the newer generation of smaller HiFi components like the Marantz M-CR502 or Arcam Solo Mini, paired with small-ish speakers that wouldn't mind being on a shelf rather than on a stand. Having read many good things about the Tivoli model 2, I also decided to try out the full-on Tivoli 'separates' system of model 2 + model CD + model sub. A local HiFi dealer was obliging enough to arrange this and I took some of my CDs to listen to the Tivoli - it sounded nice, but quite obviously inferior to my old system in terms of power and detail. When I explained my dilemma, the dealer immediately led me to a Meridian F80 standing on one side of the showroom and basically told me it was what I was looking for. I was vaguely aware of the Meridian brand as high-end audio and had come across the F80 while googling about small HiFi, but had immediately dismissed it as ridiculously expensive for what it was, and looking at the compact box in the showroom I was certain there was no way it could produce good sound and stereo image. I left without asking to listen to it.

Later on, after briefly listening to and being disappointed by the Marantz M-CR502 and matching speakers, I found myself in the area of one of Amsterdam's larger HiFi shops and decided to stop by and ask their advice about small, good audio. Hearing my situation, the salesman immediately led me to… a Meridian F80. The salesman and his colleagues were quite confident that the F80 would trample all over the Arcam Solo Mini and that to get better sound I would need to spend quite a lot more money. Whilst still thoroughly sceptical, I decided to give the little box a go (helped a little by the fact they had the more attractive silver model on display, rather than the dull metallic grey I had seen before).

A few minutes later I was sitting in a large demo room listening, slack-jawed, to the diminutive Meridian F80 doing a convincing impression of a big, powerful, very good separates system. Astonishing doesn't even begin to cover it - if you'd told me the sound was coming from the floorstanders positioned on either side of the F80 in the room, I'd have believed you… whereas at the beginning, when the dealer placed the F80 opposite me in the large room, I wasn't sure if it would even be powerful enough for the sound to reach me properly. The dealer briefly let me hear a few tracks (it was almost closing time), including some early music that was familiar to me - everything sounded wonderful… and BIG. The little box could go to stupid volumes without any strain. I immediately made an appointment for a longer listening session with my own CDs the following day.

That evening I read everything I could find on the F80, which seemed to confirm I wasn't delusional and that it might not actually be certifiable to spend over 2 thousand euros on a little tabletop CD player.

The listening session the next day, armed with a wide range of my own CDs, was the same story: Placebo to Pergolesi, Telemann to Nina Simone, Pet Shop Boys to Chopin, Vivaldi to Frou Frou… It was all just clarity, precision, realism and most of all detail - together with physics-defying high quality bass. Voices sounded particularly wonderful but what sold the F80 to me right then and there was what it did with piano: I have never, on any equipment, heard my favourite disc of Chopin piano preludes sound as wonderful and alive as it did playing on the little F80 - and I bought it then and there.

The ensuing 2 weeks has, in general been more of the same but I've learned quite a bit more about this system:

Despite its consumer-friendly styling and size, the little Meridian demonstrates very much 'proper audio' traits: That wonderful detail is mostly a blessing but can sometimes be a curse - badly produced pop music, with its overblown bass and treble, is rendered just as it's recorded. The system is sensitive to both placing and tuning of the DSP settings. Fiddling around with the digital stereo width led me to conclude that the functionality is remarkably effective, but the increments are very subtle - and the factory preset on it (width +2) is too conservative. I've learned (and since heard from others on the Meridian web forum) that unless you're sitting right in front of the unit, it basically sounds better the more you increase the digital stereo width. I have mine ramped up to the maximum of +6 and it sounds great, with a convincing stereo image. Some comparative listening with my old system did show that, particularly with big orchestral pieces, there's still no substitute for physically separate speakers in terms of sheer breadth of sound stage, but the superior detail and instrumental separation of the F80 meant it was still the better, more realistic, sounding of the two. The bass and tilt settings I have left at default, as the 'balance' sounds just right to me.

The i80 iPod dock is a useful addition and the control integration works well, but it's a shame it doesn't use the Meridian DAC. Despite using lossless files, the difference in sound quality is quite noticeable. I suppose in a sense this just goes to show how ridiculously good the F80 is, but why couldn't they have extended that to the iPod functionality? The FM radio (that I hadn't even bothered to test) sounds great with the telescopic arial and will no doubt sound better with the wire one when the system is in its new position. DAB reception in my area is too poor to make any assessment of the F80 in this respect. The DVD playback works very well too.

A couple of more negative points have also shown themselves during the first 2 weeks of ownership: The display and controls work very well in general but it's irritating you can't go 'back' from track one to the last track on a CD. In a similar vein, the remote control is great but doesn't give full control (no tuning options). Reading CDs also takes a long time.

Are such niggles enough to spoil the party? In a word: No. The Meridian is one of those rare products that seems overpriced when you read about it, fairly priced when you experience it and a positive bargain when you own it. It's proper, powerful, audio in an impossibly small package - and so exactly what I was looking for.