I am downsizing and would like to buy an integrated amplifier, no more separates for me, just a simple system.
There is a Meridian 551 available for sale that has a CD card but it is a UK version [230/240V]. A 1000W step down transformer will solve the problem but I’ll be adding another link to the chain, just what I am trying to avoid.
Does anyone know if there is a 110V tap on the primary or if the switch mode power supply is a universal one. Lots of switch mode supplies take anything from 90 to 250 volts AC with no changes.
I’ll keep my 401 rebuilt by Ray Clark, an Ortofon AS-212 rebuilt by my dear friend Angus [Phonomac on AoS] and the Meridian 507 CD player. Still not sure what speakers will replace my Tannoy Devons.
Looking at an image online, I see one that has a big 110V sticker in red. That makes me think that it’s unlikely to have any kind of auto switching, and you’d need a transformer.
I imagine that they would be helpful if you called.
It could be that the mains transformer has a split primary and at the factory they wire some of these in parallel and put a 110V sticker on and some of them in series and put a 230V sticker on. In which case ‘all’ Horacio will need to do would be to open up the case and change the wiring.
The fact that there’s a sticker suggests it’s not a universal switch-mode supply.
A quick look at internal pics suggests the transformer has a winding for a different voltage - it’s cheaper for manufacturers to have 10,000 transformers made with spare windings than have to get bunch of different specs made, so this is normal enough:
So in the first instance you could indeed try a local dealer if such exists, or if not Meridian themselves.
If neither are forthcoming, then a decent electronics engineer should be able to figure it out - probably needs no more than one lead desoldering from the back of the IEC input and another attaching in its place.
I had a look at the internal pics too but was inclined to the opposite interpretation. The 220-240V ones have a blue sticker with those numbers on on the transformer. The 110V ones have a yellow sticker saying 110V. There were one or two pics where I was fairly sure I could only see two tails coming out of the toroid itself (in the other pics I couldn’t see the tails’ exit point). But it’s possible there was a third, or even a third and fourth, wire out of sight.
You’re right - it would take an electronics person just a few seconds to find out once they’d got the box open. Heads up though: some reviewer is grumbling that he can’t get inside because the case is fastened with security screws and he hasn’t got the right bit for his driver (amateur !).
Yeah, if it’s a long-lived model it could have had multiple different transformers over the years - certainly the case with the AudioValve pre I’m busy ruining: early ones had a hilariously overspecified thing that took up half the casework, rather more modest in mine!
