[alistair®]

Hello all, I'm looking for a bit of help/advice.

I have a Marantz CD-48 CD player with Marantz amp and Meridian 203 DAC. The DAC is connected to the CD player via digital out and a quality lead.

The problem I have is that the DAC will suddenly cut out at random and lose its "lock" on the CD player. I have checked connections and nothing looks obvious, but the only way I can get it to work is to "wiggle" (technical term) the lead into the digital out directly at the back of the CD player. This eventually gets the lock back, but I don't think the speakers like it! It can be OK for another day or so, but then the same thing happens and it loses sync.

I've taken everything off and cleaned it up etc, nothing seems loose at the back of the CD player. Is it perhaps a bad port in the CD player? I've tried a brand new cable and that made no difference either.

Any help/suggestions appreciated!

Best regards,

A

[matt303]

Sounds like you might have a damaged socket on the back of the CD player, might be worth checking if the player is working via the analogue outputs just to rule out a fault with CD replay.

If you have another device with a digital out (DVD player, Squeezebox, computer) try that with the DAC to rule out a problem with the DAC.

[skinumb]

Considering that the CD-48 sells on EBay for £10, I'd not waste any more time trying to fix it. EBay a replacement - any number of decent similar cd players will come up within easy travelling distance of you and will only set you back pennies.

rich

[alistair®]

Thanks for your input guys. Have had my kit for a couple of years now, but didn't realize it was quite that cheap!

[alistair®]

Another question chaps

I am playing a CD now just through the Marantz. I have to say the audio doesn't sound much different at all to running it through the DAC. Should there be a notable difference, or are we only talking a small amount. I know nothing...!

Cheers,

[matt303]

There's not going to be a massive difference between the output of a reasonable CD player and a reasonable DAC. The 203 came out in 1990 and I think the CD-48 was around 2000 so there will have been some advances in DAC performance that the CD player will have gained from. There isn't anything magical about putting a DAC in an external box which will make it perform better than a well designed DAC inside a CD player.

[alistair®]

Thanks for the info Matt, appreciate it.

[skinumb]

I agree with Matt, Alistair. Let your ears be the judge.

The CD-48 has the Philips TDA1549 chip and CD12.1 drawer mechanism. They are both very good and the same as fitted to the ALCHEMIST NEXUS APD32A, MICROMEGA MINIUM, PHILIPS 700's, and SUGDEN MASTER. The TDA1549 is quite rare. You can read the fact sheet here:

Philips_tda1549

The MERIDIAN 203 uses two SAA7321's, and in the Mk II version has instead the TDA1547 (DAC7). The SAA7321 is also in the Marantz cd-52 MKI for instance.

There is no good reason that the CD-48 wouldn't sound excellent, just as the Meridian hooked to a transport would be excellent too.

If it were me and the Marantz sounds good on it's own I'd sell the Meridian and put the proceeds into a speaker upgrade, or, even better, some nice CD's.

Rich

[alistair®]

Thanks Rich, that's really interesting. Cheers!!