Escape from the world

Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier and Prime Power Supply

There is something so intimate about a good musical experience with headphones. When things are right — the headphones aren’t so weighty that they intrude on your thoughts about the music, and the sound is balanced to achieve the same — the listener is easily transported to an internal state of being, and the music grows large in the listener’s consciousness.

This kind of personal experience seems to be exactly what Meridian had in mind when designing their lovely Prime headphone amplifier and matching external power supply. After spending a little time with these two pieces, I think Meridian achieved that goal, and along the way managed to ratchet that experience up a notch.

It’s been a while since I’ve had as wonderful and engrossing of an experience with a headphone amp like I’m having with this one. Why? Well the last emotional headphones experience was the venerable Stax electrostatic ‘phones with an incredible matching amplifier, so the bar is set pretty high up.

But also, this little Prime amp does something the Stax could never do: it unfolds MQA. Like most head amps it has analog inputs, but it’s also a handy USB and mini optical DAC that will unfold MQA when paired with the right software. And speaking of USB, the external low-noise power supply also has isolation for that USB signal to remove the computer-generated nasties from your music.

The kicker for me is Meridian’s enlightened and well-executed crossfeed circuit. It offers two choices of blending of the left and right signals to simulate speakers in a room, and brings the music forward instead of letting it reside directly between the ears. I like this effect, and have sought out head amps in the past that offer this.

The Meridian implementation here is better than anything I’ve heard before. It takes a deft touch to make a believable crossfeed circuit, so my hat’s off to Meridian.

This amp and external power supply are a perfect first step into the MQA waters, if you’ve been watching from the shore. I’m playing John Scofield’s MQA-encoded 96KHz/24bit album Country For Old Men on Tidal, with the Meridian crossfeed set on full strength, and I’m in audio heaven.