Viable alternative to Meridian F80/M80?

[byakuya83]

I have gradully been disposing of my budget separates system, looking to move toward something smaller. I don't have a very large room to fill.

At the moment the Meridian F80 is looking like the best one-box solution for playing CDs and has the benefit of radio as well.

I do rip all my CDs to iTunes and like the idea of using the iPod to stream wirelessly, to something like the Libratone.

Are there other one-box solutions out there that compete with the Meridian? I'm not a serious audiophile (as my hearing isn't great) so opinions on possible iPod solutions are also worth considering - radio and CD is a bonus but separate speakers aren't.

 

[Big Chris]

My mate loves his Vita Audio R4. It'll do everything you need (except the wireless iPod bit, but it does have a dock) for about a third of the price of the Meridian.

 

[byakuya83]

Thank you for the suggestion, that looks like it ticks all the boxes the M80 does, plus it looks very slick.

I imagine the audio quality is unlikely to challenge the Meridian but should be comparable to dock systems such as the Zeppelin and Geneva.

DAB+ is an added bonus. Although I'm not sure when that becomes a reality.

 

[Anonymous]

As an F80 owner, I am glad to report that it has astonishing sound for its size/type. Really happy with it. It even uses DSP to sound much wider than it is (however, for proper stereo imaging, there is no substitute for having speakers separated by more than a metre at least). On the negative side, it can't go loud without some distortion, and the treble could be smoother and more airy. The absence of sub bass is nicely disguised by a warm, solid bass. However, it has great cohesion, full bodied rich sound, & punchy bass.

The DAB radio is especially good. I use it with optical digital in from my old yamaha cd writer / hard drive server which has a load of music on it. But eventually I plan to get some streaming hooked up to it.

As a one piece hifi it would be hard to beat.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not an audio-buff, but am wondering why the Bose WAVE music system hasn't been mentioned as a good one-box unit alternative.

I'm presently toying with the idea of upgrading my current Bose WAVE radio with the much more substantial (and expensive) ACOUSTIC Wave music system II (+ DAB and CD changer).

The real challenger, though, is the Meridian M80.

I've seen on the internet that there seem to be mixed views on Bose, but can the (smaller?) M80 really be better than the large Bose Acoustic Wave system?