Linn did it a while back, Arcam just did it, and now Meridian is doing it too.

It's the single box that offers CD and DVD playback, FM and/or DAB tuning, multichannel processing and amplification. Such products are clearly aimed at delivering an audio/videophile standard without a plethora of boxes and wires.

Meridian's new G95 offers HDMI connectivity, DVD-Audio playback and upsamples both onboard sources as well as external sources. But, how does Meridian get so much into one compact but admittedly weighty case without compromising results?

The secret to the G95 is digital (or, more accurately 'switching') amplification; Meridian has opted to use five Hypex output modules, which deliver 180 watts into four ohms. Despite the output, the casework remains nice and warm even in standby, but that's a function of the processor as much as amps.

At its front end, the G95 offers a ROM drive. Press the open button and nothing happens, because there is no drawer, but rather a slot loading system. If it's robust enough for the car, the chances are it will outlast anything with a mechanical drawer.

The ROM drive was chosen because of superior data reading capabilities; apparently it runs at standard speed, but can work a lot faster when it needs to make multiple attempts at reading a problem part of the disc. Something we noticed when comparing with a standalone player that skipped sections on the disc that the G95 just sailed through.

High-def friendly

As a disc player, it can deal with all the established AV and high-definition music formats save for SACD, but the latest Blu-ray and HD DVD video formats are not supported. It upsamples CD to 88.2kHz and thanks to the DSP processing onboard can present two channel media in either 5.1 surround, DPL II Movie or the three-channel stereo system Trifield, which is supported by Meridian more or less exclusively.

On the video front, things are equally advanced thanks to Meridian's close ties with Faroudja. At the heart of this is a 'broadcast quality processor/scaler', which can provide a 1080p high definition output via HDMI. In essence this means that picture quality from DVD-Video gets about as good as it can get, which is impressive enough from a standalone player let alone a player/receiver.

Videophiles will be wondering why there are no HDMI inputs for their HD satellite receivers and the new HD DVD and Blu-ray players. Meridian's solution here is its 421 (four into one) HDMI switching box, which connects to the Meridian comms socket and can be controlled via the G95 and its remote. This optional extra keeps the socket count (and the digital video processing) down to a minimum when not required.

The tuner section gives the user two factory-fit options: the model we had was supplied with a combination DAB/FM module, but for a £100 less, you can ditch DAB and have an FM/AM RDS radio instead. This latter option is no off-the-shelf item either, it has its own 24/96 A to D converter, as well as a whistle filter in DSP for improved AM reception. Regardless of reception source, one nice touch here is that you can mix bands on your presets, so preset one can be XFM on DAB while preset two can be Radio 2 on FM etc.