High-end Tabletop Audio

Engineered exclusively by Meridian Audio for Dunhill, the Alfred Dunhill AD88 Entertainment System exploits Meridian’s expertise in digital audio and loudspeaker design to deliver exceptional sound from a single tabletop component that is both stylish and unobtrusive.

Alfred Dunhill, the British luxury emporium for men, is world-famous for leather goods, writing tools, and more. Their name is synonymous with quality materials and workmanship that is unrivaled and the AD88 certainly fits in the Dunhill tradition.

The AD88 is a 2-plus-1 channel digital sound system that is a direct decedent of Meridian’s flagship reference systems, and is capable of achieving musical performances that belies its diminutive size. The Dunhill AD88 integrates a reference-grade Meridian CD player with an FM/AM tuner that uses an advanced, built-in antenna engineered for the very best possible reception, plus an iPod docking station and remote control. The AD88 also plays DVDs providing video output via S-Video and composite outputs for use with a television or suitable desktop display.

Meridian used advanced DSP (Digital Signal Processing) that was developed expressly for the AD88, which is why the unit is purported to have wonderfully detailed, rich sound with an impressively wide and lifelike soundstage. It's also possible for the user to fine-tune the AD88 and optimize its performance depending on the unit's placement in a room.

There are three amplifiers that deliver more than 80 watts to the system’s two front main speakers and the rearward subwoofer. The base of the unit is made of solid, die-cast metal that also serves as a cooling system—without unsightly heat sinks (fins). The overall enclosure is extremely dense and acoustically inert with an internally braced structure that was manufactured by Meridian using specialized, nine-layer Finnish birch, and finished to Dunhill’s design in a highly polished, high-gloss piano lacquer.

Such style and sophisticated engineering rarely comes cheap and so it is with the AD88, which sells for $3995.

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