Sound design

Award-winning hi-fi designers Bob Stuart and Allen Boothroyd launch their latest CD player, the 808.2

News from the frontline of the format wars: MP3s may be the future, but compact discs are still the present. Well, that's certainly the case if you trust the judgement of audio specialists Bob Stuart and Allen Boothroyd, and many do.

Stuart and Boothroyd are better known as the brains behind Meridian, the Cambridge-based manufacturer of high-end video and audio equipment.

The company's latest CD player, the 808.2, is engineered to mimic the sound of the original recording as closely as possible. The attention to detail is impressive, but about right for a machine retailing at £7,000. The 808.2's ROM drive is key to the quality, improving what Meridian calls "error-correction",  while a superior build quality ensures "jitters" are minimised.

Stuart and Boothroyd have won the Design Council Award for outstanding British products an unprecedented three times, and are fast gaining a reputation as Britain's top hi-fi gurus. This new player is available in two variants, as a straight Player (£7,195) or as Player/Preamplifier (£8,250).  Don't bin that CD collection just yet.