The Meridian is out on loan to me from a local hi fi store, but if I do decide to buy it, its used, and its $649.00, not $2,200.00. Frankly if it was new, its out of my budget for hi fi stuff at the moment.
However to take a moment comparing high end things to low end, why wouldn't a better CD player sound better? At some point the Digital Analog converter must convert the signal from the CD to the speakers. Either the CD player does that or the receiver. Plenty has been written on this forum why better electronics in receivers and amplifiers make one receiver sound better or worse than another, so why would it be different for the electronics in a CD player? Why wouldn't better electronics in the CD player make the overall sound better, when its been argued many times over that the electronics in almost every other part of your system does, ie DVD players (black levels, PLUGE, artifacting, etc, yet we all know all the DVD player is, is a machine that plays the DIGITAL information on a Disc); receivers, amplifiers, you get the idea.
While I agree that if I paid the full list price of the Meridian, I don't hear three times better sound than my DVD player (a pioneer elite 47A), it does have an incredible sound. While I didn't notice any difference between blind AB tests with a Rotel RCD 975 I do hear a difference with the Meridian. To perform the test, I used two albums that I had two CDs of , Donald Fagans Morph the Cat (got the CD, then found out it was available in CD/DVD-audio) and Diana Krall - The Girl in the Other Room (same deal, first bought CD). I placed them both into the DVD player and the Meridian at the same time and hit play. With the settings for each the same (yamaha set to processor direct, no effects) I had my girlfriend select one, then the other etc. with me not knowing whether she hit the CD button or the DVD button. With the Rotel tests (a $750.00 CD player) I couldn't tell the difference between the DACs in the Rotel and my Reciever (the DVD player in both tests was set to digital out, while the Rotel and the Meridian were played using analog out, since their selling points are high quality dacs). However, I could hear a difference between the Meridian and my receiver. Was it a $2200 dollar difference? Probably not, but I'm pretty sure that I will end up buying it, I'm amazed with it.
I would also note that the Meridian 506 is one solid machine. It weighs a lot, and the transport actually contains the laser, so that its always in the same spot. It also has a feature I like, even though its a minor one. The transport features a rubber center, so that when you put the CD in the machine it is always exactly where it should go. Not often, but every once in a while, I drop a dvd in my dvd player, and the door won't shut, because I didn't place it in the tray quite right.
As a final note of irony, I never would have even thought of buying stuff like Rotel Power Amps and Meridian CD players if I hadn't started reading this Darn AudioHolics Forum last Year!!!! (which includes rave reviews on not only the rotel amps and the meridian, but also the Rotel CD player that I couldn't really hear a difference on). Sooo, if any of you have actually done the said AB tests on any of these high end units, why don't you write a review of said machine in the consumer review section!!???