Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems New arrival - s/h 555 power amp to go with my 551/A500. Spinaltap's fault

Update. I have bought a Stands Unique on eBay which I need to cross the water to collect.

I just spent a happy couple of hours on hands and knees with new interconnects, spade connectors and, most importantly, my newly re-capped (Mr Tech Guy) and newly-acquired (eBay) 555 with Black Rhodium Opus interconnects.

This was added to my 551 / 504 / 596 / A500 system due the synchronicity of a) reading the A500 manual to check what it said about positioning b) a comment here by spinaltap and c) oh look, there's one on eBay (don't remember seeing one come up before).

I am blown away by the sound it makes. I am only playing my first CD (Abbey Road) and realise both the 555 and my new interconnects need playing-in so this is just an initial first impression. And it's fabulous.

Every bit of 500 kit I have been lucky enough to be given (thanks, dear) over the years has been a step-up and adding the 555 is one of the biggest. I won't use the phrase "quantum leap" because I'm an ex-physicist.

The A500 manual says bi-amping "... gives an improvement in power handling and greatly improves the bass dynamics and stereo imaging" and "... the 551 and 555 both have the same gain and so can be used for bi amping". Spinaltap said "The biggest improvement to my A500’s was first adding a Meridian 555 to my 551". They're both right. My ears are happier than a pair of happy things.

I was always mildly troubled that the bass of the system when playing CDs was a tad light especially compared to both the LP12 and 504. No longer. Taut slam on the bass & drums. There's also what I can only describe as a greater "authority" to the music. More space, clarity and control.

How much of this is due to the 555, the recapping, Herbie's Gliders and the new interconnects I would hesitate to say. But all have been beneficial. I'm looking forward to hearing it improve further as it plays-in. The recapped 504 sounds divine on R3 and Classic (and I'm not a classic music fan but how this sounds is getting me listening to more.)

I would say to anyone with an old-skool Meridian system, persevere, get it recapped by Russ or Chris, upgrade (if needed) interconnects, check your positioning - then sit back and let your ears enjoy. It's fun to keep (and recycle) old stuff as well as being a bit green.

What have I learnt?

• Why did my Speakerlink bi-wired cables have 4 different colours on one channel and 2 pairs of black/red on the other? (Tip: add a bit of insulation tape to both ends on one of the pairs).
  
• 0.5m interconnects may not be long enough for your set-up. Measure twice, cut once. I got away with it but I should have bought 1m for safety.
  
• I can't count - twice. Didn't work out that to convert bi-wired banana plugs to bi-amped spades needs 16 spades (not 4). Also, I have ordered the same phono-phono 3 times now; d'oh. (QED Profile to replace the generic for 504, Humax and NAD613: tape has in and out!). (Tip: use different coloured insulation tape each end so you can ID each connection when peering behind the rack).
  
• When I assembled the system last time, I missed the directionality of the Chord Chameleons and they were the wrong way round - now source (596) > amp (551) as intended.
  
• Have a torch handy if your eyesight's like mine.
  
• The rear-panel of the 555 doesn't identify Left and Right inputs / outputs so I arbitrarily used LHS and RHS when looking at the front which matches the 551 (on which L&R is identified).
  
• The spade connectors need careful orientation or they could touch - I have some heat-shrink on order and might hacksaw the protruding bits for safety.
  
• Not impressed with how close the phono inputs on the 555 are to the speaker terminals. Temporarily insulation-taped, awaiting heat-shrink.
  
• The 555 doesn't use Meridian comms (in hindsight, why would it?), so doesn't turn on and off with the other units. The manual says just leave it on as it uses very little power when not actually working.

At one point last year, when the 506 became urepairable (couldn't find the Mk I servo board despite the best efforts of this forum, both acknowledged experts and eBay), I was on the cusp of replacing everything bar speakers with either a Marantz or Cyrus all-in-one. This forum pointed me in the direction of a 596 and lo-and-behold on the very day I was about to give up, one popped up on eBay. Oh dear. It was late at night and I suspect beer and red wine had been consumed. Clicky-clicky and it arrived some days later.

Two issues - never knew it needed an MSR4 to access all functions. That confused me and needed this forum and NeilH to provide the requisite MSR4. Phew. 2nd is that is has a very slightly sticky door-opening - on it's first outing each day, need to give it a slight prod. I can live with that rather than risk a courier to the North Island.

Things still to do:

• Change the banana plugs at the speaker end to spade connectors (when the heat-shrink arrives).
  
• Collect and adapt the eBay-sourced Stands Unique (Herbert's fault
  
• Send the 551 off for recapping.
  
• Reset the input levels of the 551 once back.
  
• Collect the LP12 once Audio T complete their stuff. (And the NAD613 as it's being serviced just round the corner.)
  
• Tidy the wiring.
  
• Pause.
  
• Listen

PS. Watched 8 Days a Week on the 596 so now playing Sgt Pepper's Looking forward to trying some of my other favourites in the coming days. Dr Who and Agatha Christie tonight (my Humax TV STB is fed through the Meridian stack.)






Plus LP12 and NAD613 still away being serviced.

Happy Listening!