Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP8000 Repair Saga: 4 Months, $1750, Nothing Fixed

I posted previously about a volume imbalance in my 8ks.

George Meyer diagnosed some bad power supply caps and quoted about $1750 to replace all of them in both amps, around 29 in each.

Just got them back and hooked up, setup a dB meter and they’re measuring identical to before repairs, 5-10db difference between speakers. Adjusting the tweeter output in the service menu still doesn’t change the actual output.

Prior to the repair, they had a dead silent noise floor. Now when turned on, there is a very noticeable white noise/fuzz coming from both speakers.

I’ve already dropped them back off at George Meyer to give them a chance to make it right, but now I’m wary of what comes next.

And while I assumed there would be a significant markup on the capacitors, I see they’ve used Suncon and Wurth Electronik caps, probably $5 in caps total at retail price, that they upcharged to $700

Does anyone have a guess as to where the noise floor fuzz came from? Could it be the quality of the new capacitors?

Hi Travis,

Meridian used quality capacitors in their newer speakers - mainly very good Nichicons. If these have been swapped out for lesser capacitors (even though they are newer), that could contribute towards the source of the hum.

If it were me, I would isolate the problem to either the amplifier boards or the DSP/Comms board first and then work from there. Swapping capacitors willy-nilly is not the sign of a professional repair person! If I was a betting man, my money would be on the DSP board...

For Meridian service in the US, I would contact Marc Kovall to see if he can assist.

I really hope you manage to get the speakers sorted, they are definitely worth it!

Good luck,

Steve

I have had similar problem with my DSP7200 once, a significant difference in level in the speakers and erratic midrange balance. It turned out the be the DSP board which was replaced by the Dutch distributer for a fair price.

Hi,

I’ve read your previous topics. Did you try connecting the 8000's directly to the 218's master and slave connections instead of daisy chaining them?

As for the repair shop, did you only send the backpanels or the complete speakers?

Hi swpnt,

They claim to be an authorized Meridian repair shop, but I would have expected better. Marc will be my next step for sure, I appreciate it.

Hi Rick7,

Before taking them in I ran through every troubleshooting step I could think of to isolate the source of the issue. I removed the 218 from the chain and ran a streamer direct to the digital input on each speaker. I swapped the amps and the issue followed the amp. I actually didn’t try running master and slave direct from the 218, I wish I had thought of that at the time. But I think since I tried each speaker individually with a direct coax source (resetting the system settings each time), that it must be an issue in the amp.

I took the amp plates, power supplies, and mid/tweeter head units to the shop. So it should have been easy for them to test before I picked them up.

How disappointing and frustrating to read this. Not only are you out the money (for low quality caps), but the problem remains and you did not have the use of the system for 4 months. Moreover, they came back worse since you now have white noise present. Do you have any way to get a refund?

Are they the legacy (original version 8000s)? I've had pretty good luck with M equipment over the years, and have some DSPs pushing almost 30 years old that are still singing. In general, the DSPs seem to be pretty robust and service issues are rare. Maybe just bad luck?

Hopefully Marc can get you sorted and you can be back up and running soon.

There are two different issues here. Firstly, repairs should have been carried out using parts at least as good as Meridian originally used. If not, they should be replaced for better parts, or a refund issued so you can go elsewhere to get the work re-finished at the correct quality. This is likely the cause of the increased noise floor (and they probably won't sound as they should, even if output between channels was the same). So a new issue has been created. If they are a Meridian approved repairer, I would have a word with Meridian.

Secondly, the original issue could be a DSP board and it sounds like this wasn't supplied for testing/repair.

I think it might be time to get a refund and send things to Marc Koval. In which case I would take his advice - if he asks you just to send specific parts, send those, but if he needs the entire speakers, you might have to get them shipped.

Marc is great and I recently had my 3200’s repaired better than new as they replaced
my capacitors which had failed spectacularly, wow was that sound loud. My 7200HCSE
just failed in a similar spectacular fashion, I suspect the same issue. However I do recall in the
past experiencing barely perceptible static hum noise in my front soundstage speakers, however
we plugged the three front speakers into a Furman Isolation Tranformer and also added a Furman
Line conditioning box and that cleaned all the noise up, speakers have run smoothly since.

I appreciate everyone's responses, they've been helpful to read.

Throwing in an update here.

Customer service rep at George Meyer who relayed that the tech wants me to bring in one of the woofer cabinets. His explanation was that he only has one display in the shop to hook the equipment up to, so he needs me to bring one of the woofer cabinets so he can hook up both mid/tweeter tops at the same time. He said an oscilloscope test shows them matching output.

I asked why he couldn't test the output with a dB individually like I did to confirm the mismatch, and how the woofer cabinet or running them at the same time has anything to do with the system menu tweeter adjustment not working, or the new issue with the fuzzy noise floor. No real answer, other than if I don't bring in the cabinet, it's going to take him longer to test and figure out the issues. This all sounds like nonsense to me, but I'm probably just going to bite the bullet and take the woofer cabinet down tomorrow.

I also was promised multiple times this week that the owner would call me, and he never did.


It's hard for me to comprehend that this has been the experience. This isn't some small owner-operated shop. Their warehouse is stacked wall to wall with some of the most expensive audio gear that exists. They're an authorized repair center for brands like Levinson, Jadis, and Krell. I can't imagine them staying in business if my experience was the typical one.

It also does nothing to explain why they used substandard components. Are they an official Meridian repair centre? If so, I would personally raise at least that point with Meridian.

One wonders if they use cheap parts in all the other expensive brands they repair (and whether owners know if they do).

That, in itself, would be a red-line to me, especially considering you paid a premium price - are you going to be happy knowing the caps aren’t decent?

I would report all of this to Meridian UK, Meridian US, and make guys like
Ryan Donaher whom I believe may have a relevant 3rd party
Reseller of Meridian (Apex) of this type of behavior, it’s not consistent with the
brand nor reputation.