Exclusive Factory Tour! See How Meridian Audio Crafts Audio Magic

(March 28, 2025) During my recent trip to Integrated Systems Europe, I had the opportunity to visit several countries in the region, including England. As luck would have it, two British-based audio companies graciously invited me to tour their UK operations—one of them being Meridian Audio. And honestly, saying no wasn’t an option.

The first piece of content to emerge from my UK travels is a full, all-access tour of Meridian’s headquarters and manufacturing facility—an experience that proved eye-opening in all the best ways. Meridian runs a highly complex operation that keeps the vast majority of the manufacturing process in-house, right down to the design and population of crucial PCB boards that make their speakers tick.

The people within Meridian Audio’s walls are friendly, passionate, and carry a deep well of pride and expertise. If you watched our ISE video with Barry Sheldrick, you have a good idea of what I'm talking about. During this video, you'll have an opportunity to get to know Desmond "Des" Ford, who serves as the company's Technical Marketing Manager. He's been with Meridian for nearly 38 years and embodies the spirit of the company, both from a technical perspective and one that understands the company's roots and its audio intentions. And while his experience makes him unique, others at the company that you won't meet are similar.

So, from a people perspective, Meridian wins on all fronts. Professionalism, knowledge, and pride all exist within the company's halls.

The manufacturing facility is also something to behold. There, Meridian carefully handcrafts each speaker that's placed in a box and shipped to customers. And while you might assume, if not outright expect, that to be the case for the company's highest dollar speaker like the DSP8000, it also extends right down to its dynamic Elipse streaming speaker. Extreme levels of assembly are taken at each step of the manufacturing process, and thanks to our tour, you'll have an opportunity to see it in action with your own eyes.

Many thanks to Iwona Helfer, Katy Berry, and Jeff Hayward—not only for making the visit possible but also for their warm hospitality. And, of course, thanks to Des Ford for the hours of time he gave us during our visit.

I hope you enjoy the tour!

 

[canavan]

I visited when it was still the TAG McLaren Audio factory back in 2002 when they had their "VIP" event. Back then, they only had a small blocked off corner where you could look across the manufacturing floor, but other rooms, such as their "home cinema," the anechoic room etc. were accessible (and are recognizable in the video).

 

[Mr.Satyre]

A couple of Meridian memories sprang to mind:

One is my first hands on with Meridian's earliest digital speakers during my sophomore retail sales days. I hadn't any prior exposure to that design philosophy before, and that was a real eye-opener.

The other is at either my 2nd or 3rd CES while with Pioneer, and someone from the Meridian booth stopped by the Pioneer booth and asked me if I thought one of our Elite 60" RPTVs could support one of their refrigerator-size/weight center channel speakers on top!

 

[Todd Anderson]

I visited when it was still the TAG McLaren Audio factory back in 2002 when they had their "VIP" event. Back then, they only had a small blocked off corner where you could look across the manufacturing floor, but other rooms, such as their "home cinema," the anechoic room etc. were accessible (and are recognizable in the video).

Very cool that you saw it in its original iteration. They told me that quite a few of the testing areas in the facility were the same.

Would be neat to see some video from the original facility.

Were you an owner of their gear?

 

[Todd Anderson]

A couple of Meridian memories sprang to mind:

One is my first hands on with Meridian's earliest digital speakers during my sophomore retail sales days. I hadn't any prior exposure to that design philosophy before, and that was a real eye-opener.

The other is at either my 2nd or 3rd CES while with Pioneer, and someone from the Meridian booth stopped by the Pioneer booth and asked me if I thought one of our Elite 60" RPTVs could support one of their refrigerator-size/weight center channel speakers on top!

Great memories!

They have a little museum of consequential designs - original equipment that has historical significance to the company. I didn’t take a photos - wish I had! Those speakers may have been in that collection!

Did pioneer ever attempt to collaborate with Meridian? I remember some sort of speaker system that Pioneer had as a prototype at a CES (I think we talked about it on the livestream), but I can’t remember if that was a pioneer creation?

 

[Mr.Satyre]

Great memories!

They have a little museum of consequential designs - original equipment that has historical significance to the company. I didn’t take a photos - wish I had! Those speakers may have been in that collection!

Did pioneer ever attempt to collaborate with Meridian? I remember some sort of speaker system that Pioneer had as a prototype at a CES (I think we talked about it on the livestream), but I can’t remember if that was a pioneer creation?

I don't recall any active collaborations with Meridian, but that doesn't mean there were never any talks above my pay grade. As far as prototype speakers that we showed, one was an absolutely atrocious-sounding powerline-type that, as the name implied, sent audio signals to the speakers over house AC. Each speaker had its own amp(s?) and DAC, but I don't think I ever knew their configurations.

We also partnered with 1 Ltd. to rebrand and sell their digital 254-driver speaker with primitive (by today's standards) steering to simulate 5 channels of surround. I think we sold 2 at $40K each. I believe Yamaha picked up that partnership with 1 Ltd. when we dropped them.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Yes... that's exactly what I was thinking of.

That's 254 individual drivers??? WOW. That's crazy... and it doesn't even look that big!

What did it sound like?

 

[Mr.Satyre]

Yes... that's exactly what I was thinking of.

That's 254 individual drivers??? WOW. That's crazy... and it doesn't even look that big!

What did it sound like?

Each driver was about the size of a US quarter. I remember being way more impressed with the technology than I was with the sound. I may still have a brochure on it...let me dig around.

 

[Mr.Satyre]

Each driver was about the size of a US quarter. I remember being way more impressed with the technology than I was with the sound. I may still have a brochure on it...let me dig around.

Couldn't find the brochure, but here's a link to the manual

PIONEER PDSP-1 OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS MANUAL Pdf Download

View and Download Pioneer PDSP-1 operating instructions manual online. Pioneer DIGITAL SOUND PROJECTOR Operating Instructions PDSP-1. PDSP-1 speaker system pdf manual download.

www.manualslib.com

 

[Todd Anderson]

 

[Todd Anderson]

This must have been way ahead of its time. I don't remember seeing or reading about other products striving to achieve this back in those days.

Great concept, but not executed nearly as well as modern soundbar solutions.

 

[canavan]

Very cool that you saw it in its original iteration. They told me that quite a few of the testing areas in the facility were the same.

Would be neat to see some video from the original facility.

Those were not the days of convenient cellphone cameras, so I have no photos or video of that event.

Were you an owner of their gear?

I still have an AV32R-DP, a DVD-32 and a T32.