Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian 557 Power amp - reviews

Hello,

I've just joined as I have recently bought a used 557 power amp off a guy who has had three in his home cinema system from new, nice chap.

Can I leave the amp on all the time if I am playing it every few days?

Any ideas where I could find period reviews of the amp (Hifi choice, what Hifi, Hifi World, Stereophile etc), it seems to be just before the net age?

Best Edward

Hi

Welcome to the Forum.

I am not familiar with the 557, no doubt someone else will be able to assist.

If you go to Duncan's Meridian Info at the top of the page and look in the 500 section, you will find info, pictures and reviews.

Regards

Jon

Thank you, I will have a look!

The 557 is a 200w RMS (8 ohm) power amp, can be circa 1000w by bridging.

I didn't get an email to say you had replied, do you know how one turns on alerts on this forum?

Best Edward

IIRC Meridian Power Amps go into a standby mode when not in use, so it was recommended to leave them running unless not in use for a longer period of time. You can turn them off, but I suspect this will shorten the life of the unit and sound quality will suffer as it has to warm up each time.

Edward,

I ran a 557 for 8 years in an analogue system in Singapore (240VAC), and would continue to do so if I didn't now live in the US (I still have it). During the time I had it in my analogue living room system I never shut it down except to clean the area behind my gear. It performed as well on the day I retired it as the day I bought it. And I loved it.

You can be confident leaving the amp on all the time and letting it go into standby.

I never much liked Meridian's Analogue speakers but my 502/504/508 (and then 588), 577 rig, with a pair of Merlin EXL IV speaker towers, was brilliant. I still also have the Merlins here in Chicago. For Jazz (Coltrane to Krall), Classic Rock (Stones to Straights), Blues (SRV, the "Kings," Hooker), this rig acquitted itself wonderfully, with a very M sound. And classical worked very well.

Enjoy your kit.

Hi Ed,

I'm the guy who sold you the amp!

Hope you're enjoying it as much as I did.

George

I used to have a 557. I always left the power on except for when away e.g. holiday. Great amp, never short of power on both Magnepan and Xanadu AW10 Reference.

I would only use mine once or twice a month, so leaving them in standby would have been insanity imo.

I worked for a Hifi store in the 90's. We carried Meridian, Proac, BAT, Dunlavy, Jeff Rowland, Arcam, Meadowlark, California Audio Labs, and others.

One of the most magical systems in the shop consisted of a Meridian 501, 508, and 557 with XLO interconnects and speaker cable. The 557 was connected to the Proac 1SC on target stands. The sound was unbelievable, especially for the size of the speakers.

Imaging, tone, and musicality were all top notch. Those familiar with the 1SC know that even the low end is represented although not at insane volumes. Proac are very picky about electronics and the Meridian was more than up to the task.

In the late 1990s I had a 502, 508, 557 x 2 with Proac Response 2.5 speakers. It was a sublime system and still sounds fantastic to this day. I’ve moved onto DSP speakers for my main system now but have never been able to bring myself to sell the old system although I did give one of the 557s to my brother.

I can recommend adding a second 557 and bi-amping. I originally ran them in bridged mode assuming that the extra power was important. I’ll never forget the evening I spent bodging some Y-shaped interconnects to allow bi-amping and being completely blown away by the sudden improvement in sound quality. My Father was with me at the time and he couldn’t believe the difference either, eureka moments like that have been rare in my hifi journey.

Oh, and I used to leave mine switched on 24/7 unless away on holiday etc. I'm sure I read somewhere at the time that they were designed to be left on.

I used a 555 for a while and never powered it off. The rubber feet got warm and did get sticky but it was sat on marble slab so didn't bother me too much.
I never fancied powering off and on as I heard it could reduce the life of the caps (probably wrong).

Electrolytic capacitors have a fixed life, linked to the operating temperature, typically 1000 to 10,000 hours at the max temp.
Plus you are using electricity for no reason, Meridian isn't known for it's low standby / quiescent power either.

ATB,

Steve