Meade thought they would capitalize on Astro-Physics' success and came out with their own line of apochromatic refractors. But in typical Meade fashion, they made their apos cheaper by employing a doublet with FPL 51 or similar glass instead of a triplet. To get the same level of color correction as in a FPL 53 triplet, the curves on the doublet lens elements had to be steep and with a larger air space. The lens cell was not designed correctly for that design and the lens elements would decenter, even just by shipping the scope. Not go out of collimation mind you but decenter.
Unless you are well-versed in lens assembly or lens cell design, you might want to skip over these Meade 7" doublets. Even by adding lens element adjustment screws to the cell, do you really want to have to adjust lens centering on a 7" F 9 refractor, which is a 2-man job. One of the reasons to buy a refractor, of any size, is because they don't need collimation and never need lens element centering, if designed correctly.
I'm sure that if everything is aligned correctly the scope performs admirably, not like a high end 7" but admirably. However, like so many of Meade's products, the corners cut in order to increase profitability can really impact enjoyment of many (not all but enough) of their products.
IMO, and for most who just want to observer and want their equipment to get out of the way, the Meade 7" apo doublet is a hard pass.
Bob