Chris Tarling
Yellow Hound
Back in the very early 90s I bought a Meridian 206 CDP new from my local Audio Excellence.
Serious money for someone newly married and with a big mortgage...
Anyway, loved it. A few years went by and I had it breathed on by Trichord Research - a Clock 3 and some changes to the output stages.
This elevated its performance significantly and I enjoyed its musicality until it gradually started to play up. Upon inserting a disk and pressing play it would simply display 'Err'. Quite often I could coax it into life by manually moving the laser and turning the CD. But the problem deteriorated until the day about 2-3 years ago when nothing would persuade it to play a disc.
Thinking the laser had cried 'enough', and knowing these were unobtainium I bought a used Meridian G06.2 to replace it.
Buoyed by my recent success with refurbishing the electronics of my 101/M2 purchase I decided to have a go with the 206 CDP. I had been reading on the net about how actual laser failures are low in number and often misinterpreted. Given the age of the machine I decided to recap it throughout and see where that took me.
This afternoon I put it back together.
And it's a partial, but quite encouraging, success. Given I have completely put it together, so I only have the display to indicate what it is doing, it would seem that I have fixed its refusal to read a disc. It appears to read and play a disc exactly as it should. No cajoling required.
I say 'appears' because it's not producing any output
Something I have done within has not been successful so I need to delve back into it. Now troubleshooting electronics is not an area in which I have any experience.
Are there any sages on here that can suggest where I start? Obviously I need to check my capacitor installations one by one.
Any other pointers or technique suggestions?
TIA.
Pic for interest:
Serious money for someone newly married and with a big mortgage...
Anyway, loved it. A few years went by and I had it breathed on by Trichord Research - a Clock 3 and some changes to the output stages.
This elevated its performance significantly and I enjoyed its musicality until it gradually started to play up. Upon inserting a disk and pressing play it would simply display 'Err'. Quite often I could coax it into life by manually moving the laser and turning the CD. But the problem deteriorated until the day about 2-3 years ago when nothing would persuade it to play a disc.
Thinking the laser had cried 'enough', and knowing these were unobtainium I bought a used Meridian G06.2 to replace it.
Buoyed by my recent success with refurbishing the electronics of my 101/M2 purchase I decided to have a go with the 206 CDP. I had been reading on the net about how actual laser failures are low in number and often misinterpreted. Given the age of the machine I decided to recap it throughout and see where that took me.
This afternoon I put it back together.
And it's a partial, but quite encouraging, success. Given I have completely put it together, so I only have the display to indicate what it is doing, it would seem that I have fixed its refusal to read a disc. It appears to read and play a disc exactly as it should. No cajoling required.
I say 'appears' because it's not producing any output
Something I have done within has not been successful so I need to delve back into it. Now troubleshooting electronics is not an area in which I have any experience.
Are there any sages on here that can suggest where I start? Obviously I need to check my capacitor installations one by one.
Any other pointers or technique suggestions?
TIA.
Pic for interest: