Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Crackling from all DSPs with 861v4

Hi all

I’ve just recently relocated (again) and was delighted to find all my Meridian gear survived another international move. All was working perfectly and I enjoyed a few days of music and a movie last night, after calibrating and setting up with MRC.

Today, however when I turned on the 861 there was a reasonably significant crackling evident on every channel. Basic troubleshooting, power cycle all devices, re upload config didn’t help. Problem is evident on both the digital input card and analog input cards. I can still play music through the analog input, but the cracking is also evident.

Back in 2015 I had the Linear Power Supply upgrade / health check done that provided a 5 year warranty. I’ve spoken with the UK dealer who helped out with the LPS and they are going to speak to Meridian and check what options I have in Oz. Will find out soon.

Does this problem sound familiar to anyone? Is it perhaps power supply related? Is it fixable?

Here’s hoping

Hi,

As it has been in transit, it's possible the that cards in back panel cards may have been rattled.
You could try unplugging each card one by one and re-seating.

Regards,
Carl

Hi Carl

Good thought and worth a shot, although discussing the matter with my UK based dealer is suggesting the OE12 digital output card may be toast as I can hear the cracking over the top of a calibration test

Let’s see what they say about replacing it under the 5 year extended warranty I paid for in July 2015 when the health check was carried out and linear power supply installed.

Thanks, Jon

Does it happen on all source material?

What is the source material?

Could be cable, power, board or source material.

Does it crackle with source unplugged?

Is voltage and Hz the same as it was?

I tend to look at what happened in the move..

New power source at new home.
New source from new cable provider?
Lots of wear on redoing cables although unlikely to hit all channels.
And like Carl said a lose board from traveling.

Ouch, just saw your reply on crackle during calibration.

I had a (perhaps) similar experience after returning from a long trip & switching all my gear back on.
I thought my 861v8 was toast...

But simply (physically) unplugging the power, disconnecting the DSP's, and then slowly reconnecting everything fixed it.

I've also had scenarios where, again after the power being off after a long trip, one of the inputs either doesn't work at all (silent) or is very quiet / muted. Power off - at the switch - and physically unplugging / re-seating cables usually seems to do the trick.

I had the same problem with my G65 and HD621 before i upgraded to v861v8. Shipped the units to Viertron and they tested the units for a couple of weeks (we were rebuilding the house so it wasn't used that period). They found nothing; in fact, on residence it didn't produce the crackling sound. My powersouce is a balanced powersource from Link Audio (http://www.link-audio.be/Puro.htm) thought maybe that was the source, but running al equipment straight on 'dirty' power it still cracked. After rebuild and installed the system including v861v8 all is running fine so far.. Strange problem indeed!

Thanks all for the thoughts, I’ve checked the cards are all seated, power cycled everything, reconnected and unfortunately still have crackling over all channels.

My UK dealer where I bought it from is suggesting it’s likley a faulty digital output card, which kind of makes sense as the problem is evident in multiple input cards.

Now, I’m weighing up the costs of return, insured shipping to UK from Australia to get it repaired at the dealership Vs buying an OE12 card for about $315 AUD including shipping, which may or may not resolve the issue.

Any thoughts appreciated.
Jon

All that suggestions you can/should try:

Delete all your types and then try to retype the unit to another type.
Do not copy anything start from cratch.
Setup a simple 2 Stereo layout.
Disconnect the surround speakers.
Does the crackling change with volume ?
Does the surround channels also crackling when you have "stereo" or "direct" preset ?
Have you swapped the position of cards before the crackling appears ?
Try fetch from the 861 and see if all data are correct.
List up the cards what you have and the position.

Good luck
Robert

Robert has some good ideas but I don’t think I’d bother with retyping config stuff, but won’t hurt.

I forget what 861 has and what you have but can you test 2nd Zone,bypass tape out or analog out.

If you find crackle on anything other than digital out cards then it’s not likely the digital out.

Also may be power supply?

Does your 861v4 have a TP00 tape card? If so remove it and check the result. The TP00 card has 2 voltage regulators on it, one of which has its operating parameters set by rather poor quality capacitors which can fail.

Just to add some additional information to this issue:

Yes, the crackling increases with volume
The crackling increases in volume over time
Yes, the crackling is still evident in Stereo
Yes, the crackling is still evident on Direct, although on Master DSP only.
Cards haven’t been relocated in position for years
Was working fine prior to relocation for several days with identical equipment in proximity and position
Crackling almost sounds like interference similar to high tension interference in a car stereo
Connected an active speaker to analog out 1 and it works fine, no crackling

Linear Power Supply
C00 - Meridian Comms RS232 - Computer
Blank
S-Lead Patch
OE12 - Digital outputs to DSP Speakers
IE42 - Digital Inputs / Outputs
OA02 - Analog Outputs
Blank
IA00 - Analog Inputs
Blank x 2

No Tape Card

From my perspective this still suggests the OE12 is likely the issue?

Jon

Jon,

I see your CO00 card is in J25 (next to the PSU)?

If so then I had the exactly same problem and I sent my 861 to Meridian UK and they identified the problem way back in 2010. Simple fix.

Read my post HERE