Meridian AC200 seems to be ill...can I fix it? do I really need it?

Audio Gear Talk Meridian Audio
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The audio from my system, starting today, has had intermittent prolonged dropouts, both for Roon and for the TV (so it’s not a Roon or a TV problem.) Both outputs are controlled by a Meridian AC200, connected to Meridian 218s in two rooms, one with DSP 5200s and one with DSP3200s. I tried powering down and unplugging the AC200 and that worked for about 15 minutes and then it went silent again.

Also the displays on the 5200s are now odd. Instead of both speakers showing the selected output and the volume, along with a red and yellow light on the master speaker and a yellow light on the slave speaker, now the master speaker display shows PCM 48k when the AC200 is set to Roon, or MHR 96k when it’s on the TV, while the slave speaker still shows the correct channel and volume.

I’m guessing that the AC200 is the source of the problem. Since it is no longer manufactured by Meridian, I’m also guessing that updating firmware or repairing it could be a challenge. If that isn’t true, I’d appreciate hearing how I can fix it.

If it’s not salvageable, I would appreciate suggestions on whether there is a relatively inexpensive substitute for the AC200, or else if I can excise it from my system. (It’s quite possible that I never really needed it, but that ship has sailed.)

I’m not much of a techie – I can identify cables and ports, and I did manage to get Roon going again on my QNAP following helpful suggestions from this community, but my competence falls off quickly beyond that. The system was installed by a local high end audio store in 2018, but last I checked they now focus on home theater and have pretty much given up on two-channel systems. I’ll give them a try if no one here can help.

Thanks,

Mark

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Have you tried the Meridian forum meridianunplugged.com ?

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Are you able to just bypass the AC200? Certainly in the DSP5200 system, where the DSPs can act as “controller” and IR receiver.

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Thanks. The reason for using the AC200, I now recall, was so the TV audio output could come through the Meridian speakers. Since we don’t tend to watch concerts or other audio-intensive programming, the internal TV speakers will be good enough.

I will probably just follow David’s suggestion and see if I can figure out how to bypass the AC200. I imagine I just have to find the cables going from my QNAP/Roon core to the AC200 and connect them to the 218’s. Easier said than done since there’s limited access to the backs of the units and the cables were lashed down tight by the installers (who must have assumed that no troubleshooting would ever be necessary!), but I’ll see what I can do.

Paul, I found the site but it doesn’t seem to play well with iOS, or maybe with Safari. I’ll try it again with Firefox on my Mac.

Thanks,

Mark

1 Like
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If you can the 218 to the network, you’ll be able to stream to it using Sooloos streaming - you should see it in Roon in the audio settings:

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For the TV, I used to run optical into the 218 and it worked like a charm (I now use a UHD 121).