Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Restaurant at the End of Universe Hitchhikers - Service, Repair, Custom Leads & Interfaces Recapping of DSP5000

Cant wait for mine too be done, top man well recommended.

I finally made some time to fix my pair of 'beater' DSP5000s. We are having a party next month, and I thought it would be great to see if I can fix these and put them outside to play music. These were old speakers that were 24/96 upgraded from the 18-bit versions and developed some noise from the tweeter that got progressively worse with time shortly after I got them. Based on feedback from others, I suspected the amps needed servicing.

Special thanks to Tarik and Tyrone on here for some pointers along the way when working on DSP5000s. It was my first time recapping a speaker amp board. I successfully replaced all of the capacitors and did the load resistors as well. I did not see any bulging caps, but could see some discoloration on a few and the load resistors were badly burned (as expected).

The difference is night and day- the noise and warbling from the tweeter is gone and they went from my worse sounding pair of 5000s to my best. I am so impressed with the clarity and sonics, I think I will replace the caps on the amp boards of my Smiley DSP5000s. I used Nichicon golds or ultra fine golds and went with Supersounds per this thread. I am noticing the biggest difference in the highs, but overall they really sound amazing! It is actually hard to believe they are the same speakers.

The difference has me wondering how much improvement I would get from refreshing the DSP6000s? Similarly, I have an old pair of DSP6000s (probably from the early or mid-1990s) that were upgraded to 24/96. There is nothing wrong with them and they sound fine, but I wonder if there is any improvement to be gained by refreshing them. Has anyone taken on the DSP6000s?

I've re-capped a number of DSP5500's and DSP6000's with excellent results.

The process is very similar to that of the DSP5000's...
All the capacitors need to be changed (some 38 capacitors!), check the resistors (but they're normally OK)
There are two separate amplifier boards, four large power smoothing capacitors, and a smaller power supply board.

Drop me a PM and I'll send through a list of components. It's not cheap, especially if you replace the four large smoothing capacitors but there is certainly a noticeable improvement in sound.

Cheers,
Steve

Hi all,

If anyone feels they don't want to take on this kind of work on themselves, feel free to drop me a pm on here, or use the Contact Us section on our website. We would be happy to discuss any requirements with you.

Just so you are aware, apart from offering a full re-cap/service for DSP5000's, I'm currently doing the same service on my second pair of D600's.... in a month!!

Thanks

Russ

I upgraded all of the capacitors on the amp boards and PSU board of my 24/96 DSP6000s. In short, I cannot believe the difference in sound quality from the new caps! Major improvement in the midrange and bass. It looks like my set was from the mid-1990's with 1995 stamped on a few boards, so they were already old when I got them. It is incredible the level of detail and clarity that these speakers are capable of. I always thought the DSP6000s were exceptional, but there is a whole new level of performance unlocked with fresh caps!

The entire process including opening up the speakers and labeling everything and getting them back together took me about 9h spread over two days, and was about $60 in parts. As it was my first time working on the 6000s, I took my time with everything, but it is without a doubt the best improvement 'bang for the buck' I have done in audio. The caps are bit tighter on the 6000s than the 5000s in a few places on the boards, so I had to watch my dimensions on the replacements. My 6000s had all Rubycon caps (the light blue colored ones) which I replaced with Panasonic or Nichicon caps. Special thanks to Steve for some advice and guidance on the process since he has done several speakers with these boards already.

I would recommend to anyone with older DSPs to consider having the capacitors replaced on the amps. It made such a difference for both my DSP5000s and DSP6000s, and I would have loved to have known about this years ago. If you are not comfortable with a soldering iron, it is worth sending out to someone who will do this service for you. I have another pair of DSP5000s in my living room system that are next on the list.

I would like to recap my smileys, preferably by driving them to a dealer, but there is no one here in New Mexico -and the Colorado retailers tell me that they don't offer such service.

Folks in the southeast have Marc Koval at The Repair Shop (Georgia) and Bruce Sinclair at CMB Integrations (South Carolina). Does anyone know of options out west, much closer to me?

You might call Mark and send in the electronic panel. He fixed one for me taking the panel off himself and back to his shop. Then he shipped the panel back to me and I put it back on. Just a couple of connections to make which are apparent. If he let me try you should be fine.

I just finished refreshing the caps on my living room pair of DSP5000s 'smileys', and the improvement in sound is consistent with what I saw with my older pair of upgraded 24/96 5000s.

On this pair I went with 5W 680 and 330 Ohm replacement load resistors (I had previously replaced the resistors with 2W 680s when I first got them many years ago). Interestingly, the replacement 2W resistors I did at least 5 years ago still looked pretty good.

The caps looked to be original from the factory board and were all Jamicon. They looked fine by eye with no bulging caps or obvious heat damage. For the replacements, I went with Nichicon Ultra Fine Golds and Ansar Supersounds.

Having refreshed the amps on the DSP5000s and DSP6000s, it is also interesting to compare the two sonically. I like the bass response given the smaller size of the DSP5000s, but the DSP6000s with refreshed amps are really sublime with amazing bass and such a detailed midrange and upper end. It's really incredible what these speakers are capable of, especially given they were designed so many years ago. I have had Meridian speakers since 2004, and it's a pity I did not refresh the caps on the amps of any of my DSP speakers earlier.