Austell, GA, October 2008–Meridian whose sophisticated, functionally elegant digital audio and video designs are renowned the world around for both performance and quality, is adding a chic new Manhattan address: Saks Fifth Avenue. The British firm’s arresting F80 one-piece music system will be available at the midtown retailer, an icon of New York life since 1924 in time for holiday shopping, while online customers will find the F80 currently available at www.saksfifthavenue.com in the “Home & Gourmet” section.
“Saks is where knowledgeable New Yorkers have gone for the latest in quality and style, both in fashion and in what we today call ‘lifestyle’ products, for more than four generations,” says Walter Schofield, President of Meridian America. “These are the very consumers Meridian needs to reach, and while they may not yet know it, want to discover Meridian. It’s a perfect location for the world’s most sophisticated music system, in the world’s most sophisticated city.”
Saks will feature Meridian’s stunning F80 all-in-one entertainment system in its 2008-09 holiday catalog–perennially a much-anticipated arrival–and offer the unique design online and in key stores nationwide including its 611 5th Ave. flagship. The F80 has been called the “Ferrari of executive audio systems,” particularly appropriate since it was engineered by Meridian in cooperation with the legendary Italian automaker, and shares its famous prancing-horse badge.
The utterly unique F80 is a one-piece radio/CD/iPod music system whose tri-amplified, 2.1-channel digital audio abilities outstrip conventional compact and integrated systems precisely as a Ferrari does a conventional car–and whose unparalleled visual appeal does very much the same. The F80 distils the British designer’s 30 years of expertise in high-end audio and audiophile CD playback to produce sound reproduction of astonishing depth, power, and musicality, serving as an ideal introduction to Meridian’s slightly more conventional innovations including integrated audio-video components and the famous Meridian Digital Loudspeaker families. Handmade in England entirely at Meridian’s Cambridgeshire facilities, the F80 is the best sounding executive music system available by a very wide margin, yet–in sharp contrast to most “compact systems”–it is remarkably simple, unintimidating, and easy to use. It is also an item whose stunning sculptural look makes it as much an object of attention when turned off as its sound does when it is playing.
About Meridian Audio Limited
Meridian is based in Huntingdon, near Cambridge, UK, and was founded in 1977 by Allen Boothroyd and Bob Stuart. With a 30-year history of innovation and development of the highest quality consumer audio systems, the award-winning company is widely recognized as a world leader in digital and analogue audio reproduction. Meridian developed the world’s first audiophile CD player, the world’s first consumer digital surround controller, developed the MLP lossless packing systems mandated for use in DVD-Audio and Blu-ray Disc, and is the only UK audio hardware manufacturer to be a member of the DVD Forum. The company’s optical disc players, DSP-based loudspeakers and Meridian Digital Theatre systems are unique in the industry, maintaining a super-quality digital audio signal throughout the path from the source to the amplifier, and using digital signal processing to generate advanced crossover characteristics that would be impossible with conventional passive analogue systems.
