Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 861v6 speakers crackling on cold startup

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been discussed but I couldn't find it.

Lately over the past 2 weeks everytime I power up the 861v6 on a source (Cable or PVR etc) there is crackling coming through every speaker. As I said it will happen on multiple sources when the 861 is 'cold'

After about 5 mins and after I press the source a few times on the remote it will go away and never come back again while everything is up and running.

So basically it will only ever happen when the 861 is cold and will never be more than about 5 mins. Sometimes it seems to go away maybe after 3mins if I press the source a few times on the remote etc.

It could even be the HD621 I guess but then it would surely happen on others sources like my Oppo which is fine.

It never used to do this etc and only developed in the last 2 weeks etc otherwise I would think it might have been the audio settings for the PVR and cable boxes etc.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have.

Craig

I have a similar issue - I had mentioned in my last post here yeah through Oppo 103 input there was no crackle. After a few minutes my 861 powered off; worked fine after reboot but sometimes failed to recognize input signal format. My 861 is with Meridian for repairs. I suspect it is linear PS but am awaiting feedback.

Regards,
Kishore

Kishore,

Thanks for letting me know that. This is your old 861v6.

I wonder if it is from the way I use the 861. I have a 'master' switch as you walk in the room and it powers up the whole room etc. All the speakers go into standby and the rack powers up. Same when I leave the room at night... I press OFF on the MSR and of course the speakers go into 'standby' and the 861 turns OFF and then when my PJ turns off I shut down the whole room via the master switch.

So basically it's like you pulling your wall plug every time you don't use it. I would think it should be ok since it is technically 'off' but maybe this is what is causing mine to possibly fail?

Just a thought really.

Wiked,
I can't comment on whether your power on/off scheme is damaging the power supply in your 861, but here's another consideration:

If you think of the electrical supply coming into your house as a waveform, when you flip the 'on' switch, you cannot predict where in the waveform you are at the instant. On the other hand, when you flip the 'on' switch, all the power supplies in every piece of equipment have to fill up their power supplies (their capacitors). This creates a huge current draw, and will be the largest current draw your system can do. Coming back to the waveform, if it happens to be at a high (or even highish) voltage point at this moment, you are asking every electrical component in the wiring of your house and audio system to undergo maximum voltage and current at the same time. This is brutal on circuit breakers, and some audio power supply components. Given your current setup, you can predict that a fair percentage of times you hit the switch, this scenario is taking place.

If possible, I'd recommend adding a sequenced power up scheme to your setup. I'm not sure who does this these days, but I'd look at PS Audio as a starting point.

I am absolutely non technical about anything like this but my experience over 51 years would suggest that this "huge current draw" can't be that brutal on electrical equipment, otherwise we'd have things going pop on a very regular basis. It simply doesn't happen.

That suggests to me that even electrical equipment with tiny PSs etc (electrical toothbrushes, telephones...) are sufficiently robust to withstand these surges.

Not'arf,

Europe is way ahead of us in the States in this regard. Regulations require 'power-factor corrected' power supplies that do not switch on at maximum voltage points.

Equipment with large (non-power-factor corrected) power supplies sometimes have soft-start circuits to avoid this issue.

Older power amps without soft-start circuits used to regularly burn out power switches, diode bridges, etc. due to this issue.

The scenario Wiked described is a worst case scenario of throwing the 'on' switch on something like a dozen high-power pieces of equipment at the exact same instant. This is likely to throw lots of high frequency, high voltage noise spikes throughout the system.

I run a FURMAN PL-PRO DMC E Power Conditioner in my rack. My 861, HD621 and Oppo all run off it etc and supply clean power to the equipment rack.

Since it has a volt and amp meter my dedicated 20A circuit coming into my room for the rack only (the speakers are all on another 20A dedicated circuit) supplies anywhere between 247-253 Volts and will draw no more than 6amps with all sources on etc so it's getting plenty of clean power etc.

Thanks for all the replies.

Sounds like it isn't that then!

Where are you techie guys?

Craig - I remember .

What was interesting was your v6 is using SMPS while mine is LPS yet issues exhibited are kinda similar (crackling on speakers). Do you get crackling on stereo signal input as well? My v8 shutdown twice- indicating something related PS issue anyways.

I keep my unit on standby after use- so no issue of 'cold start' and I use power conditioner- have had zero issues over 4+ years.

When I had done a search on 'crackling' on this forum- it was either poorly loaded config /FW update or PS.

I did not bother opening up unit since mine was recent update to v8 and knew M would look into it.

I will update what issue was with my unit once I hear back.

Regards,
Kishore

Kishore,

I haven't tries stereo input etc.

I will plug the 861 into my rack power board that stays on 24/7 for my cable box and TiVo etc. This way it can stay in standby overnight and I will try it tomorrrow after work to see if there is still crackling in every DSP speaker.

Craig

Possible unrelated, but then again...

With my DSP5000s and a 565, selecting a digital input without a source connected causes a crackle. It's like the input clock circuit doesn't lock and some random bits (noise) gets through the DAC. It's a grumbling rather than a crackling. Mutes as soon as an input with a valid connection is selected. Grumbles as soon as an input with no source is selected.

Moving to G61R and SpeakerLink, I've never had crackling or grumbling from the speakers (5200s).

I'm wondering if your 861 has a dry joint on a digital output and warming up makes it good.

Or an iffy cable?

But before assuming a hardware fault, have you tried re-loading the firmware in case something in memory has got messed up...?

The feedback from M was a poor crimp on the power supply connector. (Dang feel like I should have opened the unit and checked with my multimeter )

Craig - you should open your unit up and check for loose connection or cold solder from PS.

Regards,
Kishore