Hi all,
I have just picked up a Meridian MCD Pro - a bit rough around the edges but I love the design.
On first play it was doing well, sounding great but since warming up it has started to randomly play a kind of white noise! This continues whether or not the CD is playing and randomly cuts in and out..
I would imagine that it is either some dry joints or a capacitor failing somewhere. I also imagine that this is a common problem on something this age - I remember my Philips CD101 has similar noise/distortion when cold.
Has anyone encountered this problem before or could anyone point me in the general direction of possible faults please? I've run a few forum searches but can't find a thing.. I'm a bit of a newbe (although been reading the forum for a while) so you may have to be kind with the technical jargon!
On a separate point and for a later project, I also have a plain MCD that *almost* works well (suspect the motor needs a clean) but has faster seek than the Pro (the Pro seems to be more akin to the CD100 than 101). Would it be possible to transplant anything into the Pro to improve this without compromising sound/reliability ("reliability" on a 20 year+ old CD player??) ?
Anyone know where to buy Nextel paint?
Thanks in advance....
I have just picked up a Meridian MCD Pro - a bit rough around the edges but I love the design.
On first play it was doing well, sounding great but since warming up it has started to randomly play a kind of white noise! This continues whether or not the CD is playing and randomly cuts in and out..
I would imagine that it is either some dry joints or a capacitor failing somewhere. I also imagine that this is a common problem on something this age - I remember my Philips CD101 has similar noise/distortion when cold.
Has anyone encountered this problem before or could anyone point me in the general direction of possible faults please? I've run a few forum searches but can't find a thing.. I'm a bit of a newbe (although been reading the forum for a while) so you may have to be kind with the technical jargon!
On a separate point and for a later project, I also have a plain MCD that *almost* works well (suspect the motor needs a clean) but has faster seek than the Pro (the Pro seems to be more akin to the CD100 than 101). Would it be possible to transplant anything into the Pro to improve this without compromising sound/reliability ("reliability" on a 20 year+ old CD player??) ?
Anyone know where to buy Nextel paint?
Thanks in advance....
Hi.
Bad joints are problems for all the early Philips players.
For example, the CD104 has a problem with the through-hole connectors (griplets) which cause untold problems.
If noise is present in STOP, them the muting relays are not working.
Reseat all the chips.
Replace all the electrolytic caps in power supply and audio/dac areas.
Resolder connectors.
Resolder all through-board connections.
That will keep you going for a few hours.
Once sorted, these players give excellent sound with good reliability.
Happy soldering.
Andy
Bad joints are problems for all the early Philips players.
For example, the CD104 has a problem with the through-hole connectors (griplets) which cause untold problems.
If noise is present in STOP, them the muting relays are not working.
Reseat all the chips.
Replace all the electrolytic caps in power supply and audio/dac areas.
Resolder connectors.
Resolder all through-board connections.
That will keep you going for a few hours.
Once sorted, these players give excellent sound with good reliability.
Happy soldering.
Andy
Hi,
I have a 'plain' MCD that gave me a 'purring' noise when playing and on pause. Turned out that the insulation on the output audio cable had perished, turned to dust, and the wire was touching one of the power regulator case.
I guess it could easily have been worse, (short circuit and...phttt), but replacing the cable fixed that problem.
The short of it 😀 is that Meridian seemed to have made an unfortunate choice when they specified the quality of cable 25 years ago, and it would be the first thing I look at. Also, as Poynton says, all electro should be replaced.
The MCD is basically a CD100 (or Marantz CD63) inside as far as the logic controls are concerned, (the analogue stage is Boothroyd - Stuart's, and quite special), and there are no'griplets to fix, but the soldering is still suspect.
Good luck
Philippe
I have a 'plain' MCD that gave me a 'purring' noise when playing and on pause. Turned out that the insulation on the output audio cable had perished, turned to dust, and the wire was touching one of the power regulator case.
I guess it could easily have been worse, (short circuit and...phttt), but replacing the cable fixed that problem.
The short of it 😀 is that Meridian seemed to have made an unfortunate choice when they specified the quality of cable 25 years ago, and it would be the first thing I look at. Also, as Poynton says, all electro should be replaced.
The MCD is basically a CD100 (or Marantz CD63) inside as far as the logic controls are concerned, (the analogue stage is Boothroyd - Stuart's, and quite special), and there are no'griplets to fix, but the soldering is still suspect.
Good luck
Philippe
Thanks Andy and Philipe.
"If noise is present in STOP, them the muting relays are not working."
Yes. Yesterday it was even worse than before, noise from cold and unlistenable (well, depends on your music taste!). Distortion and electronic kind of static..
"Reseat all the chips.
Replace all the electrolytic caps in power supply and audio/dac areas.
Resolder connectors.
Resolder all through-board connections.
That will keep you going for a few hours."
Ha! That will keep me going for weeks with my concentration - I've about 6 repair projects on my mind at the moment, mostly speaker refoams. I'll go through it stage by stage with the easiest first, see what happens.
"I have a 'plain' MCD that gave me a 'purring' noise when playing and on pause"
That rings a bell with me too, maybe on the MCD (which has got worse with disuse with it's breaking up of sound on CDs - placing another CD on top helps so i guess that the motor needs cleaning and isn't keeping a stable speed).
Who wants pictures?
P.S. How do you do the proper forum quote things when pasting from other's posts?
"If noise is present in STOP, them the muting relays are not working."
Yes. Yesterday it was even worse than before, noise from cold and unlistenable (well, depends on your music taste!). Distortion and electronic kind of static..
"Reseat all the chips.
Replace all the electrolytic caps in power supply and audio/dac areas.
Resolder connectors.
Resolder all through-board connections.
That will keep you going for a few hours."
Ha! That will keep me going for weeks with my concentration - I've about 6 repair projects on my mind at the moment, mostly speaker refoams. I'll go through it stage by stage with the easiest first, see what happens.
"I have a 'plain' MCD that gave me a 'purring' noise when playing and on pause"
That rings a bell with me too, maybe on the MCD (which has got worse with disuse with it's breaking up of sound on CDs - placing another CD on top helps so i guess that the motor needs cleaning and isn't keeping a stable speed).
Who wants pictures?
P.S. How do you do the proper forum quote things when pasting from other's posts?
NAT.D.BERG said:
No Problem.
Pictures of projects are always good.
It sometimes enables others to see the problems.
Easy - tick the "QUOTE" box at the bottom of the post.
Andy
I've still not got round to this.. having to prioritise fixing things to sell rather than for my own enjoyment 🙁
Might just take some photos though for reference..
Might just take some photos though for reference..
NAT.D.BERG said:
Hi
I had the same problem in my Philips CD 100 player.
The problem was the SAA 7000 chip that have become very temperature sensitive .
Try (with the Cd player cold and making the noise) to bring a hot soldering iron in the vicinity of the SAA 7000 , to warm it a little .
If the noise disappeared , change the chip.
Cheers an Happy New Year. 🙂
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