"09-30-15: Rogerstillman
zd542, I agree that change for the sake of change alone is not good, but wouldn't you rather have a system that you could grow into as your needs, taste, and budget change? I'm just proposing an alternate path to building a system. "
I already have this. You're assuming a line array is the best way to achieve your goals. It may be for you, and that's perfectly OK.
That said, I'll give you my opinion on this. If you start isolating certain features, giving them more importance over others, you're playing with fire. There's much more going on between the the amp and speakers that are beyond the scope of line array advantages/disadvantages. I would take a balanced approach and consider them all equally.
"Meridian have been doing the active thing longer than almost anyone. The DSP 8000 is truly worked class, the DSP7200 competes with Wilson Sasha/B&W 802 etc and the often overlooked DSP5200 is highly underrated."
I have some experience with Meridian. I've owned some of they're components, and my best friend is a Meridian fanatic. He's a scumbag lawyer and can afford the best stuff they make.
To make a long story short, we got into an argument when I told him my Vandersteen's sound better than his expensive Meridian speakers. They were at least 50k. I offered to put them side by side for comparison, and he agreed. He was also under the assumption that I was going to bring over all my best stuff. Instead, I brought over a pair of Model 2's, just 1 of my Ayre V-5's and my Wadia 302.(I also have an 861SE). Cables were 2 runs of AQ CV-8, Balanced AQ Cheetah, and 2 ESP Essence PC's.
The only things the Meridian could do better was play louder and go deeper in the bass. In every other aspect, we both thought my system was clearly the winner. And the reason I won is because my system had the better matched components. They just weren't inside the speaker. Meridian can't design an amp as good as my Ayre, and speakers as well as Vandersteen.
