Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Thread Like Summary - New to me Meridian M2s & 101 Preamp

I have been hankering after a pair of M2s and have always loved the look of the 100 series components. A pair came up with a 101 last week so I jumped at them.

Condition wise they are not too bad. Cabinets are damaged, but the drive units (despite some paint splatter) look good - and crucially they seem to be in good health. My intention is to refurbish them - new veneer on the cabinets, possibly a re-cap.

Bizarrely the 101 has been painted in silver Hammerite(!) but as it was effectively free with the M2s...

M2-1

M2-2

M2-3

M2-4

The differing silver/black tweeter plates are puzzling. The serial numbers say that these are a matched pair. Perhaps it just relates to a component change over in production.

The 101 was described as a 101B but I'm not convinced it is. Can anyone tell me what I have from this pic?

IMG_4772

Hi,

Looks to be a 101, not the "B"

Regards I

Hi,

I refrain from commenting on "better sounding", but having used M2's with both 101 and 101B, I preferred the 101B running them in balanced mode.

Regards I

Mine (owned since new and well cared for) do not sound strident. Every time I listen to them I am still hugely impressed by the quality of sound from such a modestly sized box - and they are 40 years old!

Hi

I bought my M2s in around 1984 and eventually replaced them with DSP5000 in 2012. I still miss their smooth detailed sound. I initially had a 101B preamp but moved on to various others. I found these to be a useful improvement over the 101B. The last ones I used, with my M2s, were Meridian 201 Mk1 and then Mk3. I still have both of these in a drawer. I found these to be much better and one gets the benefit of remote control.

Neil

I have done nothing to my M2s since I bought them, but I feel I must point out that I am not currently feeding them from my 101 as a preamp - I am using a rather new Pioneer device. I think, therefore, you are more likely to improve things by tackling your 101 first. The effect of capacitors losing capacitance over many years is generally to turn them into higher pass filters than the designers ever intended (or compensated for) so stridency could well be the result arising from the preamp. Do you have another preamp you could temporarily try?