Greetings from a Meridian 508 owner

[1594matt]

Hello everyone.

I'll be honest, I've been out of the Hi-Fi scene for a long time now, but I found this forum when I was searching for any info I could find on the original Meridian 508.

I have one that I've owned personally from new, bought around '95, but it hasn't seen the light of day for the best part of about 15 years, because it developed a fault, and I just dismissed it as being too costly to repair on my current income.

From what I can find, it seems it's a relatively easy fix, so I took the huge step of listing it on eBay for someone to adopt & hopefully give new life to. It'll break my heart to see it go, but the way I see it, it's just sat in the wardrobe, not being appreciated as it should be.

I have a few other bits tucked away somewhere from when I had a terrific set-up (Arcam Delta 60, Denon DRM44, Celestion 3), but they're currently inaccessible.

Anyway, I'm not deliberately trying to plug my stuff, but I'd love to hear from anyone who might be interested.

I used to work for Cleartone Hi-fi in Manchester until they went bankrupt, and spent 4 weeks with Superfi before I got another job closer to home. I was known as 'Mr Meridian' while I was there, because I was so passionate about their products, and in awe of their innovations with the digital medium. Because of that, I sold LOTS of Meridian. I once sold an elderly chap a full 600 series system, and would've loved to have explored its capabilities more than I did.

I bought the 508 directly from Meridian, with the help of Richard Bates, who was the sales rep at the time. It was one of the few left over from when they upgraded from the CDM4 mech to the CDM12(?) and gave it 20 bit capabilities. It wasn't cheap, but it was a lot cheaper than the RRP of £1350. I sold the last one we had on clearance for £999. I even remember the guy's name.

Would be great to hear from anyone who remembers Manchester Cleartone between '92 & '96.

Thanks for reading.
Matt