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Meridian M20 in the house

kasperhauser

kasperhauser

pfm Member
Impulse purchase, needing some repair. They were too interesting to pass up. As I noted in a thread in the DIY room, the RCA input jacks have been disappeared somehow. Amazingly enough, there appears to have been no damage to the boards – the tabs that attached the input jacks to the board are still neatly soldered in place. It's a deft piece of destruction. Aliens, I assume.

Anyway, replacement jacks arrive in a day or two, so I won't know until then if the amps and drivers actually work. I do know they power on and they are pretty decent cosmetically, despite the black ash finish, which was never my favorite. Here they are proximal to my Snell E/IIs for scale:

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My first active speakers, and (fingers crossed) the first active speakers I will have ever heard, other than PA stuff. I love the design and they way they blend in, much more than the relatively monolithic Snells. Hope they sound as good as they look.

First question: I'm going to need to source something to connect them up to my preamp. The manual states they were originally supplied with "balanced twisted unscreened directional audio cable". How many of those adjectives are essential? My system doesn't offer balanced anything, but I'm not sure that's the same "balanced" they're describing.

Any pointers from previous/current owners much appreciated. Looking forward to hearing them make the noise.

Edit: Just read this in the manual RE: cables – "With conventional (unbalanced) preamps it will often be necessary to employ screened connecting audio leads." So I guess that addresses one of the adjectives.
 
You will be fine with standard screened cable to the phono socket. The kef t33 tweeter is a ferofluid design and could have lost some sparkle given their age but maybe not.i used a pair for a few years and liked them.
Rgds Stuart
 
Excellent, thanks – wires ordered.

I've seen a bit online about ferrofluid-related maintenance in these tweeters. Hopefully not needed but it's on the list of stuff I'm prepared to deal with if necessary.
 
IIRC, M20 were intended to be used with a 101B preamp with the balanced output module, and that is how I used them with an unscreened twisted pair of "el cheapo" wires.

They are currently doing sterling service with Daughter#2. According to said Dau., they are still sounding pretty damn fine, but the cloth grilles do need replacing as they have suffered from several generations of Burmese cats using them as scratching posts :D

Edit: one thing we did find with M20s (unlike our M2s) is that if you play them "too quiet" then they switch into standby mode - therefore no use as background sounds for those "romantic candlelit dinners a deux"! (Not that that bothers us OAPs anyway........)
 
Interesting. I'm prepared to do a bit of preamp experimentation if I get them working. I'm using a tube pre at the moment but also have a solid-state preamp that can be used passive or active, so that gives me some things to try. I'm not ruling out going the balanced route. Lots of fun experiments ahead.

As for the standby thing, I think I read earlier that the music sensing feature (which perhaps is what's putting your daughter's M20s into standby?) can be turned off by toggling switch #1 on the back. Dunno if that would address the low-level listening issue or not. Maybe worth a toggle to see, but likely you've already tried it I suppose.
 
I too have dipped my toes into meridian actives with a pair of M33s. Remarkable speakers delivering a full and rich sound that frankly I could listen to (and do) for hours.

Excellent bass to the extent I have removed the rel sub I had in use. So these little meridians are connected to the little fanless pc and dac on the desk and thats the entire set up, remarkable!

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"As for the standby thing, I think I read earlier that the music sensing feature (which perhaps is what's putting your daughter's M20s into standby?) can be turned off by toggling switch #1 on the back. Dunno if that would address the low-level listening issue or not. Maybe worth a toggle to see, but likely you've already tried it I suppose."

I can't remember whether I tried it or not, but it it is entirely possible that, despite reading the manual many times, I have been a complete numpty for a number of years!

I must get Dau.2 to email me a picture of the switches
 
Returned yesterday evening from a two-week road trip to Mexico to find a set of RCA jacks from Farnell awaiting installation. Amps out, boards cleaned up, holes enlarged to accommodate the slightly wider pins of the new jacks, and presto!

All reassembled and hooked up now. Sounding very nice with Over the Rhine – The Trumpet Child; the lovely Karin Bergquist is as beguiling as ever ---> happy result. Too soon yet to judge how they compare to the Snells.

Still don't know how the original jacks got broken without destroying the boards. The little metal ears were still soldered in place(?!):

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Tip of the cap to @mansr for finding the correct parts in response to my post in the DIY room, and all others for assistance.
 
Bought a pair of M2' s on the never never in my twenties. Loved them for years, then relegated to the corner of the bedroom.
Dragged them out and put a Supratek pre amp in front of them. Never realized what I'd been missing. These deserve the best pre amp you can afford.
Used them for years with a 101B, a Musical Fidelity The pre and a Meridian Modular pre. None of them remotely did the speakers justice.
40 year laste doing Sterling service on my tv set up fronted by an Audio Mirror tube pre which is based on an Audio Note design.
Defintely nicer with a tube pre imho.
 
Si74 said:
Used them for years with a 101B, a Musical Fidelity The pre and a Meridian Modular pre. None of them remotely did the speakers justice.
Click to expand...

Now that is interesting. The 101 & 101B were good preamps in their day, but I know that the 101 is significantly bettered by (even) a Naim 102 - coz I've tried both of 'em into our veteran 103D power amp driving Kans & SBLs.

Our M2s are currently attached to a Meridian 201.
 
suzywong said:
but I know that the 101 is significantly bettered by (even) a Naim 102
Click to expand...

Same here. I got a 101B back in the day but is sounded very veilled next to my 42 and 32 back then. It lasted 10 sedonds in my system.
I still have the tuner (104?) gathering dust here somewhere. Haven’t touched it for 30 years at least.

I do recall hearing the M2 at a London show back in the 80s and they were superb (even playing Dire Straits all day long): there was a queue down Pentonville Road outside Graham’s to listen to them for weeks after. Strangely, they were nowhere near as impressive there as the show. Would be great to hear them again, esp with all the current fuss around actives.
 
Well, the M20s are in the system to stay, having displaced the mighty Snells.Here they are bathed in glorious morning backlight:
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Had them in for 3 days straight, listening pretty much constantly. Got familiar with the things they did, then last night, I put on Solid Air, listened to side 1, and put the Snells back in. Took me all of 30 seconds to decide.

Plus, they really clean up the view. :)

Comments about preamps have me wondering though. Current preamp is a Chinese "kit". I know nothing of the circuit other than it uses 6SN7 tubes, which a number of other seemingly decent preamps also use (Schiit Freya, Supratek Chardonnay, Cary SLP-98, at least one of the Rogue preamps). Still, I wonder if I'm hearing everything the Meridians have to offer, as one does.

On the subject of Meridian preamps, how is the 501 regarded? I like the looks and the functionality, but I've read some lukewarm reviews. I generally like Meridian designs, esp. 200 and 500 series stuff.

Edit: still need to tidy up the cables. Also, the Snells are visible there, peeking in sullenly from the left.
 
Nottingham Analogue Horizon SE. There's also a Nak RX-505 and an MDS JB930 minidisc rounding out my collection of sources from yesteryear.
 
lovely looking set up you have,i instantly found Meridian's 502 preamp to be a much more transparent amp than the 501,and they both look good as well, one thing I may come to regrets never trying other preamps with my M100's,which I think are similar vintage to your M20's,think they look great though
 
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