I have had, in my home, Meridan, Ayre CD-5x, Wadia 861, Esoteric X-03, and the Meitner combo. For me, hands down, the Meitner won. The Meridian was a dealer demo, and fully borken in, they asked me to take it home and compare it to the Meitner stack. I found it to be more congested, and be much less accurate than the meitner, as well as more digital sounding. It reminded me of when I compare Linn to almost anything American, it had good pace, but not good soundstaging, not good definition against the meitner. It was better than the Ayre in almost every way IMHO, and the build quality is outstanding, there should be a dealer near you that has both.
Cheers,
C
Cheers,
C