Jason KnottIt’s no surprise to anyone that audio pioneer Meridian Audio has one of the most high-tech factories in the industry. Indeed, the company built by partners Allen Boothroyd and Bob Stuart boasts an awe-inspiring 57,000-square-foot factory/showroom in Cambridgeshire, England, about 30 miles north of London.
The company has been housed in the location since 2004, taking over the building from Tag McLaren, which custom built the facility with audio in mind so it could presumably target Meridian.
As you enter the 30- by 50-foot reception area, the first thing you notice is that the elegance of Meridian design has extended to the building. The room has several vignette areas, including a 2-channel listening area and a portion devoted to the history of the company, complete with a timeline and some products on display. In a mezzanine above the main entry is a sizable home cinema where integrators can bring clients.
On average, two to three installers per week visit the facility, according to new CEO John Buchanan. In the theater featuring all Meridian equipment, I was treated to a demo clip from the movie “Gravity” (which I have not seen) that was quite thrilling.
Bringing people to the headquarters “helps installers and clients to understand us,” says Buchanan, who similarly hosted famed musician Neil Young for a tour earlier this year. “To see all the attention to detail, how the product is built… hand-built… will inspire integrators to spread our message: ‘If you hear more, you feel more.’”
Factory Floor: Robot Heaven
In addition to the headquarters showroom, Meridian has 14 boutiques all around the world for integrators and customers. But as impressive as the listening and viewing was, getting a chance to walk the factory and see how the product is constructed is even more mind-blowing. The factory is an array of expensive automated machines that create Surface Mount Technology chip boards with precision used for the company’s active speakers, DACs, amplifiers, power supplies, media servers, multiroom audio controls, processors, projectors, and CD players. Those circuit boards are then handed off to individuals to do hand-soldering of large transistors and capacitors. As many as 30 components are added by hand for every circuit board.
From there, units are sent through a minimum of five quality control (QC) tests done by both machines and engineers… including a 30-second listening test by a human. According to Buchanan, higher-volume manufacturers do half-second listening tests. The end result is a combination of design and technology for Meridian’s powered speakers and other electronics. The average tenure of the company’s testing engineers is 15 years.
The company can build in batches as small as eight to 10 units depending on the order with as little as a five-day lead time. For example, Ford says the company did some one-off orders for a client who wanted some of his speakers covered in faux lizard skin and others inlayed with precious Dutch wood.
To get the products to the U.S. faster, Meridian has all its employees sent through U.S. Homeland Security background checks so the products avoid long delays through U.S. Customs to get to the company’s Buffalo, N.Y. warehouse.