Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Help: G08 Noisy transport

I have been enjoying my G08 for about a year now. Lately, with some individual tracks on some CDs, I notice that the transport is overly noisy (whirring sound). The weird part is that it only happens on some tracks, making me believe that perhaps that track is bad. The "bad" track still plays in the G08 though. And to make matters worse, I can use the same CD and tracks on other (considerably cheaper!) players without any problem. I only encounter this problem on 3 out of 100 CDs, but still annoying. I am beginning to think the G08, with its CD-ROM transport, is picky with CDs.

Has anybody noticed this on the G08? Thanks in advance for any information.

Snap! I've had my G08 for two years and after one year the same thing happened, whirring noise on a few of my cds, ususally only at the start of the CD for one or two tracks. I contacted my dealer who contacted the Meridian agents (I live in Australia) and the machine was returned to have a new transport fitted. Well it's now a year later and guess what - the same thing is happening again. It's a great sounding machine but there's a problem in there somewhere.

Cheers,

Craig.

Thanks for the info Craig. I called Meridian and was told they haven't heard this problem before, so I should talk to my dealer. Let's just say I am not too pleased with the response.

I am going to my dealer tonight after work and bring in the "offending" CD and player. They have several G08's there for me to test. I will post back the results.

Well, the G08 at my dealer also exhibits the same problem. I tried the "bad" disc in a Meridian G07 and Burmester at my dealer without encountering any problem. So this is definitely a G08 issue only. My dealer will contact somebody at Meridian USA to get some assistance. I will keep you guys posted.

I've been told that the G07 uses a different transport to the G08...

You have to remember the G08 drive runs at 4 times the speed of normal CD drive.

The G07 uses a standard CD drive from what the guys told me at Meridian.

So if a disc which is pressed off balance it can cause vibration noise as it is running it faster.

Maybe copying the disc as using the copy may help if it is just 2 or 3 discs.

Michael

MTAT,

I would agree with your thoughts if the problem was present from the first time I used the G08. What has happened both times with me is that for nearly a year it's fine, then the problem presents. The noise isn't a big problem, doesn't last for long, and is generally below the level of the music however with the price of the G08 being fairly high in the scheme of things, I don't feel that I should be having to make allowances. I'll try copying the discs tomorrow and see what happens.

Cheers,

Craig.

Craig, copying the disc works; this has been my workaround. I rip the disc using Windows Media Player in a lossless format, burn a copy, then delete the files from the computer (pretty big). So the G08 may be sensitive to pressing issues.

This is a weird problem in that I had a "bad disc" that went "good" then "bad" again. So something is flaky in the transport, which I think is overly sensitive. I also discovered at least a couple of CDs that simply will not play (e.g. Madeline Peyroux, "Careless Love."). I have to copy those too. Sure, the problem may be in a relatively small number of CDs, but is unacceptable for a player at this level. Plus the whirring noise is really loud on some CDs, and messes up the blackness of the notes. It is also embarrasing as another person in my audio club actually heard it with his CD during a meet. I guess that guy will not be getting a G08. Furthermore, I would like to have a system with the player next to me for easy CD change and DSP speakers far away. I guess I need to place the G08 as far away from me as possible.

Frankly, I was thinking of getting an 808 for a second system, but there is no way I will make the same mistake twice. I now use these "bad" discs for audition.

I too have had a couple of CD's where the original won't work on the G08 but my five year old iMac read them find and then the G08 would play a copy. Unlike you I'm a good three metres from my player so the noise isn't a problem during most music.

And of course I agree that this isn't acceptable and if I had the dollars lying around I may well consider changing the player. Alas to get the same sound quality (it is a lovely sounding player) is going to cost more than I could possibly afford. Perhaps I'll be up for a new transport every year! Not happy Bob.

Cheers,

Craig.

And this straight from the horses, sorry, tech's mouth:

"Thank you for the email and for purchasing Meridian. The problem is due to the DVD drive in the G08 spinning the CD faster than a standard CD drive giving it the opportunity to re-read bad sectors it encounters. Because of this, if any CDs are warped it can produce a minor noise which is not noticeable on other drives which are not running at the greater speed. The
problem is more noticeable with early tracks on a disc due to the drive spinning the disc faster than when it is reading tracks closer to the centre of the disc. It's possible this becomes worse the older the drive gets, but should not be considered a problem. Meridian has as always been monitoring failures of the drive through service to give us feedback on reliability and
any steps we may to to resolve any issues that arise.

If this does only happen on a few discs I suggest that a copy of the disc is made and see if this resolves the issue.

Best regards
Dave Hall
Meridian Audio
England"

So it would seem it's a known problem (just as MTAT suggested) with no fix. When a lot of time and effort is spend getting a listening room to be quiet, I find saying that this "should not be considered a problem" isn't greatly helpful. As evidenced by PATB's situation, if your room is set up with the CD player close to the listening position then it it is a problem.

Cheers,

Craig.

Well, I guess the problem is not bad enough for me to consider getting rid of the G08. It does sound good. However, there is no way I will send any more cash to Meridian with this kind of attitude.

Anyways, I should be hearing from my dealer next week after Thanksgiving here in the states. I am not optimistic but you never know.