Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - 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

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.

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.

Hi Ed,

I'm the guy who sold you the amp!

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

George