- I found a review of this GREAT reference cd player, Meridian 808.
808 Technology
Meridian's 808 is the latest in a series of optical disc players that use a specially-selected ROM drive for reading. The ROM drive allows multiple passes to be made, ensuring that the correct data are recovered from the disc and improving Compact Disc's error-correction a hundredfold. It also allows complete buffering of the recovered data.
To ensure the lowest possible jitter, 808 incorporates three buffers, two of which are used as FIFOs. By the time the data is passed to the DACs or the digital output, the jitter is incredibly low - in fact 808 has the lowest jitter we have ever measured on a CD player: around 90 picoseconds, with the jitter spectrum held below 0.1Hz.
The signal path includes proprietary error correction and concealment, and Meridian's acclaimed 'Resolution Enhancement' DSP, in which the original 44.1kHz, 16-bit audio is upsampled to 176.4kHz, 24-bit in one of three 150MIPs processors operating with 48-bit internal precision. This is 'true' DSP upsampling, unlike anything else available in the marketplace.
This upsampling allows conversion-related filtering to take place far above the limits of human hearing, so there are no artefacts added to the sound - simply the pure music.
The 808 employs exquisite multibit over-sampled delta-sigma D/A converters, combined with a matching proprietary analogue output stage of the highest quality.
To ensure the finest sound, the 808's construction employs a motherboard and multiple cards. Each card has its own power supplies and buffering so that each section - computer, decoder, FIFO buffers, DSP upsampling, D/A conversion, digital output, analogue input and digital input - is on a separate and isolated card. As is traditional with Meridian products, the construction uses audiophile-grade capacitors throughout and each component - even each resistor - has been selected for its sonic contribution. The PCBs are all multilayer, many of them using 6-layer technology for the lowest noise and jitter and for optimum grounding.
The 808 features a solidly-constructed case built of metal and glass, finished in black lacquer or satin silver. The casework itself is non-magnetic to maintain the sweetest sound.
