Meridian 808.2 Auditions ? Impressions ?

Hi
I have recently auditioned the Meridian 808.2 against my own Musical Fidelity TriVista SACD player and a Chord Blu/DAc64 in a dealer dem room using Chord amplifier and Wilson Benesch Curve speakers.

I so wanted to like and buy the Meridian because it ticked so many boxes for me (new model, superb look and build, British made, future proof, digital input/outputs, and a impressive technical spec).

Unfortunately I was disappointed and preferred the Chord combo. My thoughts on various tracks I listened to were

lacked detail, cymbols sounded much more life like with shimmer and air to them with the Chord

lacked fullness, bass guiter lacked some thump compared to the Chord

lacked excitment, some of my favourite tracks just sounded lifeless and boring compared to the Chord

I did on a seperate occasion compare the Chord Blu/DAC62 with Chords own Red Standard player and there is nothing between them. Strange this as the Red is the same price but eschews the fancy upsampling that Chord includes in the REd Reference and Blu/DAC64.

Maxx2man

RE Chord DAC64/Blu v Red Standard
I listened to many tracks, switching between machines in the dealers dem room. The sonic differences are minimal and I could not describe them.
The Chord line up confuses me as the Red Ref and DAC64/Blu include upsampling and this is expounded by Chord as a key performance aspect. However, the Red Standard samples only at the standard 44 rate but is priced comparable to the DAC64/Blu.
I have not made up my mind about what to buy and wish to listen to the Dcs Puccini first and possibly the Red Reference
I prefer the look and build of the Red but the DAC combo is more flexible and has more connection options to servers etc. Incidently I understand that the DAC64 is to be replaced/ updated later this year so I may wait.