Saturday, September 3, 2011

Meridian 602


The 602 is the dedicated CD transport from the 600 series and was part of the company's no expenses spared range of hifi components from the mid-80's. The 602 was design to use the Philips CDM-4/PRO lens.

The 600 series were constructed using anodised aluminum to ensure durability with minimum maintainence requirements. One unique characteristics of the 600 series was the deployment of twin blocks to separate power supply from control electronics, to minimise disruptions from power sources.

The 602 can be partner-ed with components from the 200's series and can be place into standby or operation mode remotely. Normally I would use the Philips Pronto programmable remote to control the 602 as it is less cumbersome than the original Meridian 209 (pix from internet as need to locate it in the store room; feels like a brick and eats 9V battery's for breakfast!!!).

The DAC which partners the 602 is the Meridian 606 which I had to perform maintained earlier on.
Stand-by mode

Rear
Tray extended

Play mode

The 602 can be partner with other DAC(s) for good results. In fact, I only discovered how good the 602 was when I partner-ed it with the Audiolab 8000DAC vs the Audiolab 8000CDM. After the shoot-out, I proceed with substituitions on the Audiolab 8000CDM.