HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Hi techies, I’m not very electronically skilled.
I’ve had a Sony cdp 770 since the late 80s early 90s that has seen sporadic service since getting a Meridian 206 series bitstream few years later.
The meridian in my opinion outshines the Sony but sentiment makes me keep it- is there anything that can be modified to up its performance- just another diy project or shall I pass it on- cheers peter

Best mod i did to my cdp was a tentlabs clock with its own psu, including transformer.
Totally independent psu's for digital, dac and anologue stage.
Bit of opamp rolling ?

Keep it dude. Lots of fun to be had if you know what to do.

Depends what 206 you have as they 'changed' during production, as was normal for Meridian back then and it's this constant tweaking that puts me off this brand (500 CD models too ) and also early to mid period Linn Karik/Numerik pairs, which could also sound excellent if you had a good one and bland if you didn't.

Clock updates used to be commonplace but these days, modern cheap dacs seem to be able to accept a stock clock output (I doubt the Sony is awful, but I obviously don't know). I *suspect* that like most of the more 'solid' machines of this era, it'd make a wonderful transport. Cheaper than a fancy clock, one of the 'fiver dacs' properly supplied (the £40 Chinese one packs a lot into not much dosh) may well improve on both meridian and Sony on the audio output - you never know.....

Maybe I don't listen for 'HiFi' aspects so much now, but some surprisingly cheap machines can be superbly 'musical' in their presentation, the CDP-S1 I have here is a classic case in point and totally 'stock,' it makes a great transport too... All the details are there, just not exaggerated...