Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming 3200 or 218 noise/clicking

Just purchased 3200’s and 218 and using Roon on a QNAP. Whenever audio starts (beginning of a track or manually selecting any point) there’s a click/noise similar to a stylus contacting an LP on a turntable.

Took my 218 to the dealer today to test. On his 3200’s it’s still there but almost inaudible but couldn’t hear it on the 5200 or 7200 se’s. The dealer thought it could be a power issue and lent me a surge protector/conditioner however the noise/click remains.

I’ve tried switching the core to an iMac and it’s still there. I’m using SpeakerLink between 218 and speakers. Cat 6 from router to 218 and NAS. Have tried using 2 SpeakerLink cables as well as daisy chain from 218 to speakers.

I want to eliminate all the obvious things before returning my 3200’s for examination. Could it be one of the numerous settings in the 218? Something in room perhaps? 218 appears to be running latest firmware.

Anyone have further thoughts?

Is it when the resolution changes between tracks or just every track change regardless of resolution?

I sometimes get a click as the speakers lock onto the SPDIF signal when changing between DD and PCM sources.

Could this possibly be a Roon set-up problem with a loss of PCM continuity between tracks forcing the 218/3200s to re-acquire lock?

Are you on latest firmware? Meridian have been known to add brief mutes to delay sound until changes of source or other things that alter the stability of the digital stream have settled down. There are sometimes options offered to improve handling of poorer streams.

Just tried tracks of different sampling frequencies and bit rates and the click remains. In fact there are 2 clicks between half a second and one second apart.

The click occurs on tracks stored locally and streamed from the world wide inter-web. It occurs when I press play, manually move up or down tracks or move the playhead. It doesn't occur when one track ends and another begins within the same album, but does occur when one album ends and another begins.

When I change a setting in the 218 and save settings it clicks. And I get the same sound when I plug and unplug either the ethernet or SpeakerLink cables in the back of the 218.

Does this suggest a problem with the 218?

software version 1 build 185
co processor version 0.3
Hardware version 0.8

I took my speakers to the dealer today. Their set don't make the noise, mine do. I even tried connecting 1 of mine and 1 of theirs, mine made the noise, theirs didn't They're doing to contact Meridian to see if it's a known problem and whether a solution is available.

Not a very good introduction to the Meridian world. Sorry for your luck. I’m assuming that you purchased from this dealer? Have they not offered to simply replace these???

Oh yes. They offered a replacement but I suggested they ask Meridian whether there's a simple solution like firmware upgrade. I'd hate to swap them and waste a perfectly good pair of speakers if the solution is that simple.

I found the following notes relating to a firmware update. Although it's very old, maybe my speakers are missing this? Anyone know how I can check what firmware the speakers are running?


DSP3200 Product Firmware Release 1.0.3 (2011-07-07)
Software Fixes - Critical - Software must be updated
Improvement to protection strategy for dealing with interruptions to incoming digital streams.

Latest firmware is 1.2 released in 2014
You should update your 3200s to that
The dealer should be able to do that.
Surprised they didn’t check that first.
Regards

The new pair of speakers were fine for a month or two but have recently begun clicking like the first pair.

One of the speakers has also developed a hum. It’s audible when they’re powered I but not playing from up to 1.5 metres away. I’ve read conflicting stories on whether transformer hum is considered acceptable so not sure what do to about this. I swapped power cords between speakers to check whether it was power related but the same speaker still hums.

I went to my dealer and listened to their 3200, 5200 se and 7200 se and none of them had the click or hum.

How can I check what firmware version my speakers are running?

I’m not sure if my problem was the same as yours.
One of mine started to make a regular faint click only when I had been listening via network to Roon. That was using a 218 but, after careful testing, it was not 218 or cable related.
The speakers were changed out and all was well.
Then exactly the same happened again some months later. Just one speaker. That was just as I was advertising them for sale. They were taken back by the dealer.
I don’t know what the diagnosis of the problem was in the end. Both pairs did have some transformer hum, but it wasn’t particularly intrusive.

Alex,

A very long shot.

Could the problem be occurring when Roon handles a format change in the source material?
If you go into Roon / Settings / Audio, select the Zone you're in when the offending clicks occur, and then open “Device Setuup.”

Then go to Resync delay, which defaults to “0”
In the drop down menu change the value to 50 ms and see what happens, if it helps, great, if it doesn’t, just go back and change it to the default.

Maybe, just maybe....