INTELLIGENT HIGH-FIDELITY SYSTEM MERIDIAN ‘200’ SERIES

Meridian, a company which operates at the highest levels of hi-fi, has gone small. A high-end Meridian system might include a 17kg Reference CD player, or the large and impressive UltraDAC, perhaps the solid 23kg power amplifier. But the company is now addressing an entirely different type of solution. The world of streaming, together with the compact possibilities of new amplification technologies, has changed the shape of modern hi-fi. And as a company that led the world in of some areas digital and streaming technologies, so Meridian has delivered something new again in the 200 Series — a set of compact yet capable multiroom-equipped units that can deliver a whole house of audio, and don’t need to be seen doing it.

In some ways these new releases take on the like of Sonos and other multiroom systems — the 218 Zone Controller shown above (without amps) provides the equivalent of the Sonos Connect, while the 251 Powered Zone Controller might be considered to be a hi-fi version of the Connect:amp. But