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Meridian M2 and 101 preamp

C

Chris Tarling

Yellow Hound
Apologies - having created a 'my journey' thread in the 'Classic' forum I realise that the DIY section might be a better home...

Quick recap: I recently bought a pair of Meridian M2s and a 101 preamp.
The speakers are in reasonable condition but I bought them with the intention of fully refurbishing them.
The previous owner had bizarrely painted the 101 preamp, with a brush, in silver Hammerite. On the up side it works as it should but it looks every bit as a 'meh' as it sounds...

With the intention of swapping the internals over I bought a ono-working 101B off ebay that was in very good cosmetic condition. In fact it was in such good condition that I decided to see if I could resurrect it.

I have gone through and replaced all of the electrolytic capacitors, fitted DIL sockets to the boards and replaced the opamps (NE5532s) with LME49720s (now plug'n'play if I want to try something else, or revert to the OE 5532s) and fixed the output DIN plug which had broken. I still need to replace the phono cables but am awaiting the fresh cable.

I also want to see if I can get some custom paint made up in the OE shade.

Huzzah! I now have a fully working 101B preamp! Jolly pleased with myself!

I have all of the bits needed to do the same with the 101 so will go through that.

But the next job will be a full service of the power amplifiers in the M2s - I have all the bits, including new input sockets to complete the work.

I don't think my soldering would win any awards but I am quickly getting better.



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I'm now on a similar journey having just discovered that the 101 and 101b support the mysterious 'balanced' operation mentioned in the M30 instruction manual and have the right gain to get them rocking. If you end up with a spare 101 or 101B, let me know!
 
foxwelljsly said:
I'm now on a similar journey having just discovered that the 101 and 101b support the mysterious 'balanced' operation mentioned in the M30 instruction manual and have the right gain to get them rocking. If you end up with a spare 101 or 101B, let me know!
Click to expand...

Only the 101B has the balanced DIN output - it's what the 'B' stands for.
 
The label says"output".
There was also a 75 ohm output module and a balanced output module, from memory their labels said "75 ohm" and "balanced".
 
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And courtesy of tnt-audio.com website here is a picture showing the balanced output module.

meridian_101_inside.jpg


Neither of mine have that big black box (transformer cover) at the top. Another interesting thing about the photo is the double module. my two are "Moving Coil", and I know there is a "CD" double module, the latter being as common as rocking horse droppings; I've only ever seen one on ebay and I was beaten to it! Now it appears there is a Moving Magnet (I assume) double module. Well, well.

The rest of the page is worth reading. the link is:

https://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/meridian_101_103_e.html
 
suzywong said:
And courtesy of tnt-audio.com website here is a picture showing the balanced output module.

meridian_101_inside.jpg


No sure what that big black box is though, and the 101B is sixty miles away in London. Another interesting thing about the photo is the double module. my two are "Moving Coil", and I know there is a "CD" double module, which are as common as rocking horse droppings; I've only ever seen one on ebay and I was beaten to it! Now it appears there is a Moving Magnet (I assume) double module. Well, well.

The rest of the page is worth reading. the link is:

https://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/meridian_101_103_e.html
Click to expand...

Big black box is covering the toroidal transformer.
By default I though the 101B was balanced output so I am surprised that it's only balanced output with the appropriate module.
I thought the 'B' stood for 'Balanced' but it seems it just denotes the later model.
 
The wiring of the output connector is different, to accommodate four “active” pins (two per channel),
instead of three “active” pins (left, right and joint signal return) as in the 101. Currently the 101B on loan to daughter2 has an unbalanced output module.
 
I have a set of M2's and a 101B .
The module in mine is the unbalance one. Is there much difference to the sound quality with the balanced module?
 
marantz1300 said:
I have a set of M2's and a 101B .
The module in mine is the unbalance one. Is there much difference to the sound quality with the balanced module?
Click to expand...

I suspect the main difference may be gain rather than SQ.

I've been investigating using my M30's with a balanced DAC as the PCM output from our new telly is a bit on the quiet side.

I think the M2/M3/M20/M30 are optimised for the 4Vrms you typically get from a balanced output rather than the 2Vrms you get from an unbalanced output. This is why the wick needs to be up and there's no headroom for low level programme material when run from an unbalanced source. Something I decided to live with for now rather than spend the £400-odd it would cost to rectify.
 
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Thanks.
My 101/M2 are not really loud, but does sound very good.
When I use the 101 to drive My MF P270 things are a lot louder.
 
marantz1300 said:
Thanks.
My 101/M2 are not really loud, but does sound very good.
When I use the 101 to drive My MF P270 things are a lot louder.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the m30s are specced to achieve 106dB at 1m, so can go loud. I've only achieved that by using them with unbalanced active pre amps with lots of gain from the likes of quad and sugden. They sound so gorgeous driven straight off a DAC, though, it's a shame to stick anything else in the signal path.
 
marantz1300 said:
That's interesting.
What is your sorce and how do you control the volume.
Click to expand...

A Topping E30 DAC, which has unbalanced outputs and remote control volume, fed by a Pi 4 via USB and a smart TV via toslink.

If I were starting afresh, I would buy a DAC with balanced XLR outputs and remote volume control and connect it to my M30's with balanced RCA to XLR cables made up as per cable no 6 on this page. Obviously, if you're using M2s or M3s, you'll need DIN plugs rather than RCAs. I am pretty sure this would provide the same results (principally a bit more gain) as using the balanced output module in the 101B, but I am not absolutely sure until I try it.
 
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