Meridian G08 or Linn Ikemi

Linn Ikemi hands down, Meridian can not or actually refuses toi design a CD player, Speakers, Pre amp etc that does not have a Digital Sound. They claim to have a analog sound and that they invented it, but I lestened to a set of speakers and CD player just yesterday that my dealer was demoing for a Meridian rep and every one that came into the store said "sounds to thin in the bass","sounds to digital", "to crisp in the mids and highs", "very slow on accessing tracks". The current dealer for Meridian in the area is losing the franchise and the Meridian folks are approaching the local Linn dealer and the irony is that the current dealer is selling the Escoteric DV-50 as fast as they come in. That tells me that the Meridian which used to be their focus when you entered their store is now a dust collector. Buy the Linn.

From a past post:

"The key issue with the Ikemi is vibration management: its chassis is woefully underdesigned. I cannot emphasise this enough and cite Ben's response as supporting evidence (the deteriation of playback quality with "heavier music").

However, if you are willing to manage vibration properly, you'll have arguably the finest Redbook playback available at that price point. I have compared the Ikemi to its peer group and, well, I still have the Ikemi. I've even had the opportunity to compare it to the CD12 and must say it holds its own at a fraction of the price (after a certain point, you slam hard against the limitations of the Redbook format).

One more note: if you decide to purchase an Ikemi from other than from a Linn authorized dealer, know the warantee does *not* transfer."

The Meridian doesn't sound digital as a stand alone player. the meridian speakers are exacting and definitely but definitely not warm. The meridian player is extremely neutral, so if you system is bright or overly dark this will not compensate for that. but if you tonal balance is neutral to warm it is an amazing piece of equipment.

You really need to hear both of these in your system if possible the linn is a nice player also, so I don't think you could go wrong with either player.

I would go Meridian personally because of my experiences with their player and my system dynamics.