Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP life expectancy

We're moving to Italy when we manage to sell our place here. My 5500s are pretty old Mk1s; I'm guessing they must be 15+ years old. I've never had any issues with them and they still look like new, but how long might I reasonably expect them to last?
They typically get about 30 hours use each week and are usually run with volumes between high 50s and mid 80s.
The reason for asking is that if anything major went wrong with them then shipping them back & forth would presumably make it uneconomic, even though there is a dealer in Italy.
There was a recent thread about 200 CD transports and most appear to have died. I'd expect speakers to outlive CD players, but does anyone have a take on average life expectancy?

I bought my D600s in 1989. I had a (cheap) component replaced. They work fine but haven't been overused.

As I understand it, faults (if any) are likely to be on the board at the back. On the D600s and 5000s, this comes off easily and can be sent to M for repair (well packaged). I suspect the 5500 boards come off easily. Cost of repair may be another matter

My 7ks must be nearly 10 years old. Used pretty much every day. Two major international moves, with one voltage change. Never a problem.

I don't think I'd worry about DSPs, they are not the same as the players with transport mechanisms, or the G/800 series with switched mode powers supplies. My own opinion (and expectation) is that these work horses will still be going strong after 25 or 30 years, with only driver replacements (ie tweeters) needed very occasionally along the way.

There was a comment attributed to Meridian staff (St Des or Dave Hall IIRC) here some years ago about the DSPs being very, very reliable.

Cheers

George

You should rarely have to ship the cabinet for repair.

It's either a bad driver, which you can usually fix and diagnose yourself. Or the electronics and you can often just ship the back in.

Only thing that might fail that would require shipping cabinet is the display, but that is fairly rare.

5500's are still running very strong. These puppies were built well, and although they do require periodic maintenance, they do have a better record for longevity and reliability than the 5k's. In due time, the back panel electronics will likely have a heat related issue such as a burnt up load resistor or dried up capacitors. These are easy fixes and can be done without the cabinet.

Take them with you and enjoy without worry. You have some great speakers.

5K's I think are built just as well and have just as good a track record. All DSP Speakers have pretty good track records. I have 10 5K's and not a failure yet. Some are 15 years old. Where I did have minor failures on much newer 5500's.

Please trust that I KNOW, the difference in failure between the two, intimately. 5500 are and remain more reliable. Every pair of 5k's experience the same fault in due time. If you are interested in ever repairing your failed 5k's (when they fail) let me know. I can also help you to prevent that failure if you are interested.

Make that 22 between George and Hector. My first pair are 16 years old and never a failure not even a tweeter. The only degradation/failure in all this time is my ears.

Have to ask, can you tell us a bit more?

Sure, I'd love to know. Post it PM it or even better add it to the Wiki. I'm sure others would love to know too.

I know they will all fail eventually. But I've had very good luck with the 5K's (so far). Lot of bang for the buck.

Thanks

Odd comments re the failure rate of 5Ks.

I have never seen then fail at any faster rate than the other speakers. There have been more failures of 5 Ks than 5500s but I would attribute that to the fact that there are so many more pairs of 5Ks than 5500s.

I don't have the records anymore but would guess from experience that the actual failure rate is approx the same.

Also not any inherent flaw in the 5Ks over the 5500s. They are very similar in design and production.

The real problem with these now is that some of the components used in the construction of these are no longer available (pretty much anywhere)

Marc