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Has my Meridian 506 become an expensive door stop?

A couple of years ago I purchased a used Meridan 506 CD player for a fairly reasonable price. At first it worked fine and sounded great, but a few months later it began having difficulty reading and sometimes tracking discs. About a year and a half ago I contacted Meridian about getting it fixed and got a general estimate to replace the drive (or whatever the black-box fix was). At the time I wasn’t in the best shape financially so decided to live with it for the time being.

Recently I decided to have it taken care of and called again to get a repair authorization from Meridian. The rep informed me that parts are no longer available for the 506. (Goddamn designed obsolescence!) However, if I sent it in they could “grease the chassis”. Uh... well, I’m highly mechanically skilled, so I took the thing apart and did it myself. There wasn’t much to do (though getting it apart was an adventure), and I chose not to disassemble the laser mechanism. (The way the guy talked, the “lube job” would be of the transport and not the laser drive itself anyway.)

It didn’t noticeably change anything, and it’s continuing to get progressively worse. So what now? Is there anything I can do with this? Is there anywhere else besides Meridan itself that might have parts? Though I do enjoy quality sound I’ve always been on a very tight budget. (Most of my system is “hand-me-downs”.) I’m also reluctant to toss something that can be repaired (within reason).
r_leach
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,649 posts
 
AFAIK, Meridian sourced these transport mechanisms from a third party and did not make them. Therefore, there might be someone with a stock of these.

First, you have to find out what mechanism it is and, second, you have to find out who may have them.

A good place to start is at http://www.meridianunplugged.com/

Third, you have to decide if this effort/cost is worth it considering the age of the 506.

Kal
r_leach OP
5 posts
 
Thanks for the info. Gives me something to mull over instead of just fretting. I did the laser cleaner when this first started, with minor improvement (if any). I'll look into the rest as it makes sense. Cheers...
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
You laser needs replacement
Post removed 
r_leach OP
5 posts
 
Thanks Elizabeth – I think you're implying that most repairs nowadays are "black box" fixes, which I believe is true. It's much easier and I suppose cost effective on a "global scale" over the long run, because it eliminates all the possible future malfunctions within the "box". (Assuming of course, that the general lifespan of individual components within the "box" are equal, which obviously they are not.) Of course, that philosophy is problematic when the "box" is no longer manufactured...

So how were you able to determine that your problem was a 15 cent cap?
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