I know nothing about Perpetual, but I can highly recommend the Meridian upgrade (as a Meridian improvement). I have a Meridian DAC that I upgraded from 1-bit to 20-bit to 24-bit. I chose to do this after hearing an Audiomat 24-bit DAC kill my 20-bit Meridian. I called Meridian America and talked to a tech about what I heard. He reassured me that it was as much due to 24-bit vs. 20-bit as it did Meridian vs. Audiomat. I chose to upgrade, not switch, because it was economically a better deal. The upgrade was all that was advertised. I don't regret it for a moment. Give Meridian America a call and get the details of the improvment that will be heard even with 16-bit CDs.
Meridian 24-bit Upgrade: Perpetual?
I have a Meridian 506 (the three-year old 18-bit model) CD player. It was great in its time but now I want to upgrade to 24 bits. I'm mulling over whether to get the Meridian upgrade for $699 or to buy a Perpetual P-3 instead (for around $550), using the 506 only as a transport. Any advice?