Meridian DAC 203 Converting AC Voltage to 220 Volt

Meridian is one of the best audio company and very famous in 90's. They build in the USA and for sure the voltage input required is 110 volt. Unfortunately in my country, which is provide the 220 volt for the mains is not suitable for this Meridian. Using an external step down transformer gives me worries of miss-plugging the AC input. It even can degrading the sound quality by using low quality step-down transformer. So I will convert this Meridian to accept 220 volt instead. And of course with high quality transformer.

First things first, open up the top cover and do analyse the components inside. The board is quite small in my opinion and the transformer that I want to replace is an EI type. But anyway, the casing is thick enough and high quality.

For sure I really liked this DAC so much. It sound so good indeed. In my experience did a test on common DIY DAC using TDA1541 still cannot compete with this Meridian sound quality. In this case, the main DAC IC are dual SAA7321GP, not familiar isn't it? Me either.

The big capacitor are Nichicon Muse and using several op-amp for the analog line output filtering.

And this is the new transformer from Bando salvage from others audio components. This transformer will be using to power up this DAC and the voltage input is 220 volt.

You only need two voltage rail from the transformet to drive this DAC. Dual rail 15 volt at the pin 1 to 3  for the analog section and dual rail 8 volt at the pin 4 to 6 for the DAC section. This Bando Transformer has another extra output which is not required for this application. So I ignore it.

Once all soldered in it’s place, I tidy up the cables and test it for a while, to make sure no smoke coming from this unit. And it is working like charm now.

Now it is finished, Just like the original except now working at 220 volt mains.

I wonder how does the sound compare to the mighty Sony Playstation? I will cover them up on the next review.

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