Quite excited about this one....

[Mr_Sukebe]

Just agreed purchase on a new AV processor.
It's a private sale, so I can't really talk too much about it as these things can always fall through. Either way, it'll be a fair amout of dosh and is likely to be pretty much "end game" stuff as a source/processor for a number of years.

Hopefully collect on Sat and will be able to post pics then.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

It's black, doesn't have HDMI inputs, includes room correction and balanced outputs...

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Meridian?

Getting warmer...

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

if it doesn't have hdmi then isn't that pretty much pointless nowadays? everything uses hdmi, my laptop, my pc, my games console, my sky box, etc, etc.

or are you feeding the tv directly and then using toslink (optical out) to process sound only?

Not quite. It's a two box solution, which might sound inelligent, but does mean that the HDMI box can be re-used with other processors, has given new life to what would normally be classfied as a legancy processor AND keeps "noisy" video data via HDMI away from audio circuits.
Please don't as me to explain the bit about "noise", only passing on what I've read elsewhere.
As such, the new processor will most definitely be able to handle not only BD audio, but also SACDs remixed to PCM from my BD player.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I'll assume that means it is a Meridian then - at which point I'm guessing an 861 v4/6/8?

Spot on, s/h 861v4. Should be collecting first thing tomorrow.
After my experience with the 568.2 and G68 processors that I've been through, guess it'll take me a couple of hours (min) to get it fully configured.
The configuration is most definitely more time consuming, but also results in a better optimised system, both how it sounds AND how easy it is to use.

Can't wait...

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

861v4 now home, fully configured and operational.
Had a minor issue with needing to buy new cabling to connect it to a laptop for configuration, but otherwise, fairly plain sailing.

Looks like this:

It's in situ now, so that photo is a better representation that you'll get with it hiding in the corner.
Only running with two sources at the moment, i.e.
- My Sooloos streamer, for music
- A Meridian HD621, which collates my HDMI AV sources (PS3, Xbox360 and a Pioneer BD player) and does some clever jitter reduction

Sure enough, has the Meridian "style" of sound, but is even better than both the 568.2 and G68. I could blather on about the usual rubbish you'd read in mags, but lets just say it's more of the same goodness and is just lovely and enjoyable to listen to, as you'd expect of something that was for a while one of the more expensive processors on the market.

So, happy bunny here! Now, off to listen to the Dio tribute album I bought today.