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Meridian M2's

The chap I bought mine from told me that every pair he had owned were different, he mentioned that they were initially released under a different company, unfortunately I have forgotten the name.
I would like your M10's if you ever decide to change!
BW Keith

I think it may have been Orpheus the company Boothroyd Stuart bought out? They had a precurser pre & power to the 101 / 103, 105 and I think an active similar to the M1's.

May be I could be tempted to change by the Kii's, except for A to D then D to A conversion. :rolleyes: ;)

Mostly all analogue here with vintage TT as well. :)
 
Yes Orpheus that rings a bell, re the A/D, D/A on the Kii's I feel it is completely transparent but it is impossible to actually compare because the Kii's processing can't be bypassed.
I do however firmly believe that the Kii's advantages far outweigh any A/D concerns.
Keith
 
I lusted after the M2 as I had heard them on several occasions at my local hifi emporium (Eulipion Audio on Wilmslow Rd, M14). Many years later I got a pair out of nostalgia c/w the 101B preamp. They didn't sound half bad either with the 101B, but really came into their own when I replaced the old Meridian preamp with the Naim 552 and come custom Y-cables from Flashback.
 
I lusted after the M2 as I had heard them on several occasions at my local hifi emporium (Eulipion Audio on Wilmslow Rd, M14). Many years later I got a pair out of nostalgia c/w the 101B preamp. They didn't sound half bad either with the 101B, but really came into their own when I replaced the old Meridian preamp with the Naim 552 and come custom Y-cables from Flashback.

Hmmm, that's interesting, I suppose the preamp may well be a weak link. Mine are currently being driven from a 101B with sources being either a NACD3.5-Flatcap or RaspberryPi-Numerik. I might try slotting in a spare NAC102
 
I used a 101B initially, replaced with a Musical Fidelity the Pre. I then won a competition for a pair of M3s, their new modular pre and a Logic DM 101. Meridian were brilliant and agreed it would make more sense to upgrade my M2s so gave me new amps, way better stands, much better cables and a modular pre with the modules of my choice. Many years later I tried them with my Supratek pre amp and realised I'd been letting them down big style. Currently running an Audio Mirror pre which I'm told was based on an Audionote design. All running from a Purepower APS 700. Spookily, given the valve pre, if the lights weren't on, ear to the M2s, you wouldn't know the system was even on. All way less paranioa than worrying about the 32 valves in my main system and all this delight using an old Technics cd player as a source? weird
While not having the height info of 6ft high horns or the bass from two subs, they don't lack for much else:)
 
Have a look on Facebook for Meridian Repair Shop - they repair all Meridian gear

Unfortunately no longer in business and it seems they have now also closed their website that indicted this. I think the Facebook page only has old info & quotes.
 
Sorry to hear that and also sorry for posting duff info.

The M2's were my first real HiFi and I always missed them after letting them go for a Krell Pre driving two huge Beard M70 monoblocks and Magneplaners.

So I bought some M20's and a 208 CD/Pre - they are still to be reckoned with today.
 
I have 2 pairs of M2s (don't ask as its a painful tail, documented elsewhere here).

I've had a peep inside the working pair and there is nothing scary on the amp boards.
All fairly standard stuff. Schematics are difficult to obtain for tha actual M2 amplifier, however the amplifier is basically an old Lecson design trimmed back to handle less current. It's also very close to the 105 schematic as you'd expect.
There are no known bad transistors used (unlike in lots of old Japanese kit) so a straightforward recap and bias check should be all you'd ever need for working boards.

Worth spot checking caps for ESR and also the dc offset since the drivers are connected directly to the amplifiers. A bad amp fault will kill the drivers.
 
Thanks for that Robert, beyond my knowledge but seems like a sensible precaution so may have them checked out as I'd hate to loose them after all their years of sterling service.
 
Hi Robert, this is an old thread I know but it sounds like you have some working knowledge about Meridian M2's. I recapped one of my pair (M2 MkII's) a few years back, changed out the main ROE PSU caps for slit foils and also replaced the six 100uf's on the amp sections for Silmics. Absolute night and day gains and can fully recommend the 100uf's are changed to Silmics or Muse to reveal what this design is truly capable of if other owners are still working on the originals, the heat build up in the M2 rear partition over the years takes its toll on these low value caps.

Do you know anything about the DC offset adjustment and the procedure of how to re-calibrate it back to zero, on my set it appears to be adjusted by a small blue VR present on the Top Amp section alone? Also do you know where the test probe points for the Quiescent Current adjustments are on the output stages? I have the schematic but it is very poorly reproduced and not that clear.

On pre-amps, all I can suggest people do to hear M2's at their very best is always run them in balanced mode from a balanced source. I have over many years found them to be entirely and ruthlessly revealing of all stages before them, and sound their absolute best when fed from the balanced outputs direct from the DAC (use a 518 for pre-dac gain control). You may need to pad down with a simple resistor attenuator in the DIN plugs to match the older input sensitivity on the M2s but removing any pre-amp from the feed reduces system losses yet further again and with the M2 being such an open window I am confident you will hear this straight away. Major gains in imaging, sound staging and the rest from this classic integrated design.
 
FWIW I've repaired a few pairs of M2's and done a complete rebuild and upgrades to the electronics on a set, including the active crossovers. Next year before I can fit in anything like that ATM though...
 
The chap I bought mine from told me that every pair he had owned were different, he mentioned that they were initially released under a different company, unfortunately I have forgotten the name.
I would like your M10's if you ever decide to change!
BW Keith

The M1 was originally a 'hired gun' design by Boothroyd Stuart for Orpheus Audio, who never really got off the ground apart from one rave (pre?)review in Practical HiFi. There was also a pre-amp which visually had more than a hint of Allen Bothroyd's Lecson design about it, and a power amp design which effectively became the Meridian 105s.

My understanding is that BS never received full payment, hence when Orpheus folded they retained the intellectual property to the designs. Cue Meridian...
 
Keith,

Years ago when I replaced my M1's with M10's it was a close call. In a few ways the M1's were a better speaker. More extended in the bass and a little more coherent (less drivers?). Also if you had one of premium finishes like the 'oiled walnut' I had on lone once (mine were black ash) they looked absolutely stunning.

The M10's 'image' and disappear in the room better and that is why I finally settled on them. Close call though and if you don't believe 'soundstage' is important then they are the better speaker IMHO.

I confess I do believe soundstage is important but still consider the M1 superior to the M10 and M100, both of which were a bit more 'hifi' to me, I never really got on with either, I always considered the M1 more engaging.

I ended up with an Audio Research pre-amp driving my second pair of M1s (rosewood originals, walnut second time around), fronted by an Oracle Delphi with FR 64fx and a Koetsu Black. That was a glorious system.

I think I'm correct in saying that in 1980 I sold more M1s than any UK dealer other than Howard Popeck, which considering he was in London and I was in Aberdeen was reasonably impressive — Steve Hopkins thought we were using them to build oil rigs...
 
I have Jim’s old M10’s ( i owned a pair back in the 80’s) and a pair of M1’s the M1 are more coloured but still very enjoyable, I first heard a pair at Howard’s place in Palmer’s Green.
Keith
 
FWIW I've repaired a few pairs of M2's and done a complete rebuild and upgrades to the electronics on a set, including the active crossovers. Next year before I can fit in anything like that ATM though...

Just out of curiosity how much would something like that cost? I fully understand if it’s not possible to say without examining the speakers first.
 
Just out of curiosity how much would something like that cost? I fully understand if it’s not possible to say without examining the speakers first.

In the region of £600. That includes recapping and setting up all 4 amplifiers, two per speaker of course, and with much larger and better smoothing caps in PSU's, fitting best latest op amps and replacing all the mylar caps with 1% polypropylene ones in crossover etc etc so better than new. I don't undertake any work on drive units though.
 
My mate still owns a pair of M10's and at one point I owned two pairs of M20's. I had then mounted on top of each other for a larger sound stage. They took an age to warm up, but once they did they were lovely.
 
In the region of £600. That includes recapping and setting up all 4 amplifiers, two per speaker of course, and with much larger and better smoothing caps in PSU's, fitting best latest op amps and replacing all the mylar caps with 1% polypropylene ones in crossover etc etc so better than new. I don't undertake any work on drive units though.

Thanks Jez, the speakers only cost me £300 a couple of years ago, so that would be reasonable. When I bought them the chap said he’d had to ‘fix’ one of the speakers to get it working - I’ve always assumed that was a cap issue.

They’ve worked fine since I bought them, but it would be great to have them properly ’fettled’. At £300 they’ve been one of the biggest hifi bargains I’ve ever bought.
 
Thanks Jez, the speakers only cost me £300 a couple of years ago, so that would be reasonable. When I bought them the chap said he’d had to ‘fix’ one of the speakers to get it working - I’ve always assumed that was a cap issue.

They’ve worked fine since I bought them, but it would be great to have them properly ’fettled’. At £300 they’ve been one of the biggest hifi bargains I’ve ever bought.

I've always had a passing interest in these pre-digital Meridian actives. I always wonder if they are speakers that give good scale to the presentation or not.
Do you have anything to say on that front?
And £600 sounds very reasonable for that work so I hope you go for it!
 


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