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

I use SpeakerLink and have new Cat 6 shielded cables through the walls. The crackling is coming for all 5 speakers. I can re-upload the firmware also.

Kishore, if that fails I will pull it from the rack soon as I get time on the weekend and have a look at the PS wires like you suggested.

Don't bother with FW. It is your 861 internal PS connection.

Yeah I guess so. Anyway on Sunday I will have time to get it out of the rack and have a good look at the PS and connections etc.

OK I did pull the 861 from the rack on the weekend and opened it up. Removed the PS and PSU board etc.

I checked all solder joints for continuity with my multimeter bypassing the PSU board and all was fine. Checked where the wires are attached on the PSU and they have heat shield on them but seem all tight etc.

Put it all back in and it's still doing the same thing so I am really at a loss now. I checked the ribbon cable and other connectors etc.

All I can really do now is re-solder every joint on the PSU board just to be sure.

You need an eyglass to look at those solder joints if your eyes are like mine.
With a glass though, flaws show up easily.
I am thinking of a Honda Fuel pump relay I had to sort recently. Good luck, Chris

Kishore,

I tried it again today in Stereo and the crackling/static is less but still there. If I go MONO then no crackling at all but I would expect that if it's a power issue where the motherboard isn't getting the power it needs to decode multi channels properly.

I rang a local guy who I use to repair the circuit boards in my Pinball machines and I will take the PSU board over to him tomorrow and he will have a look at it and test and re-do all solder joints etc. I can re-solder the board myself but I'm sure he would do a better job than me and for the $50 it will cost me I would rather have it done 100%.

Time will tell on if the board is the problem. I have checked the connectors from the board to the motherboard and they are fine.
The connector on the PS is different to what I have seen on Duncan's site for a 861 switched PS..... the wires from the board are soldered directly onto the pins on the PS with heat shrink over each one. They all are very tight. Makes it harder for me as I will have to take the PS to him also.

Kishore, Did you buy this new? if so I guess Meridian dispensed with the connector or if it's been in to M for repair at some point then they might have done it then.

Craig,

Yes, I bought the v6 new as part of v4 upgrade/trade in program, I am the original owner.

I thought you could easily detect an issue, sorry this is turning out more complicated. Is there M service shop near you?

Perhaps it is time to opt for v8/LPSU upgrade

Regards,
Kishore

Kishore,

Ok mate glad you bought it new.
The Australian distributor for M went bust awhile ago and as the last time I had email from M in the UK they said they would announce a new distributor in the near future. In the meantime the 'old' dealer in Sydney has always still dealt in M gear etc. M are happy to use them as they are a very professional outfit.

I could've sent the 861 back down there but you guys said it was likely a PS problem so having it checked locally is far easier for me. Worst case I can buy a new switched PS (exact same one) for around $100 so that would be better than paying at least $160 for a return insured freight cost to Sydney and back etc plus $$ to look at it and find the problem. I see you guys get a 'FREE' service by your M dealers if there is a fault but I'm not sure the dealer in Sydney would be doing that and even if they did like you Kishore....having such a small and easy fix would be easier for me to get it looked at locally.

Anyway I will likely upgrade to V8 later this year as I'm not ready for fork out $4500 or so at this point in time.


Today I dropped the whole PS and PSU Board to my local guy who fixes all the Pinball circuit boards for us. He is an electronics expert and he has all the test gear on his bench. It's only a quiet 10min drive away.

In the meantime I have put back my old trusty 565/562V combo in the rack and ran the old M5/S5 digital cables to the front 3 speakers so I can at least use 2 optical sources while the HD621switches the HDMI and sends it to the PJ etc. It is certainly good to hear no crackling again. Thankfully I never did sell the 565 so this turned out good for me.



I will pick up the PS from him later in the week so hopefully on the weekend I can put it back in and test it and let everybody know what the problem was.

Craig

Craig

I would strongly recommend that you upgrade to a linear power supply instead of trying to fix the existing one.

The sound quality improvement is large in my opinion.

I understand the issues of lack of a distributor here. PM me and I may be able to assist

OK well I did get the PS and PSU Board back from the guy who checked it all over.

He checked all solder joints on the board and he changed all the pins on the connectors going to the MB. He took the cover off the PS and checked it all out and said it looked fine with no damage etc.

I put it all back in and tested it and the crackling/static is still there as before. At least I know it's not the connectors and the solder joints on the board.

I tested the PS under load (with source operating) with my multimeter on the 3 power wires.

Red wire is 5.19V (no load) and will reduce to 5.16V under load. I adjusted this back up to 5.21V via the pot on the PSU. No change.

Blue wire is 12.20V (no load) and no change under load.
Yellow wire is 13.18V (no load) and will drop to 13.01V under load. With pot adjusted up to 5.21V this pushed this one up to 13.23V and dropping to 13.07V

Does anybody know if the 13V voltage is ok? I'm not sure if it is meant to be 15V as it was meant to be 12V surely it would be low 12V.

My PS has slight temp marks on it's transformer also. Not as bad as the ones show in the My G68 runs slow topic.

Does the 861v6 use a ECM40 PS?
Has anybody got a part number for the Linear PS?

Thanks

I did take out both the DSP and SpeakerLink cards and found something that doesn't make sense to me being a new 861v6.

This pic is the 2 optical sockets on the IE44 card. Surely it couldn't be M's doing. Kishore assured me that it was bought new by him and I am the 2nd owner.


The next pic here is the same card and it is the main socket for the MB connection.
Again this surely isn't M's doing is it?

Ok so an update on my problem...

I spoke to Des at Meridian UK and he advised to send the cards + DSP cards + PSU + PSU board over to Meridian UK to test them etc.
Dave (service team) looked after me and tested the cards and they were all fine. he replaced the PSU + PSU Board and when I got the cards back here and put them all back in today it worked fine again.

I did have a 'bad code combination' error so Dave advised I re-flash the firmware as the cards had been in their 861 test chassis and this removed the error from mine after the re-flash was completed.

All working 100% now and I just want to say that Meridian (Des and Dave) have been so helpful to me in this situation etc.