The CD player that was not

At the end of 2025, my dream from the 90s was about to come true when I almost added the CD player I wanted to my system after assembling the TDL Studio 0.5 – Unison Research Mood pair. Okay, maybe at the time a player costing over 3 million lire was a bit excessive. For some reason, when I saw it around, I always had the impression that it exuded robustness and quality. The TNT-Audio review I read of the 24-bit version confirmed the player’s extremely high standard. But it was out of reach. Almost by chance, in December 2025, I came across an advertisement for a 20-bit Meridian 506 at a price I had never seen before, except for faulty players sold only for spare parts. But the owner, a Frenchman, advertised it as fully functional and in excellent condition. It wasn’t a time when I could spend much, so I just saved the ad in my favourites. The seller made me a lower offer! How could I refuse? I asked him to give me some time to think about it, given the lean times, and he lowered the price even further, as he was in a hurry to sell to finance the switch to digital music. At the time I was rediscovering CDs, prompted by the absurd prices of vinyl. What to do? When would I ever get another chance? But… it didn’t work! What a disappointment – but I should have expected it, given the price. The seller was completely taken aback but was very understanding and accepted the return with a full refund. Such a disappointment…

The Meridian 506.20 was the company’s mid-range player at the turn of the 1990s/2000s, with the other two versions being 16-bit and 24-bit. Some reviewers and enthusiasts consider the sound of the 16-bit 3 20-bit version to be more enjoyable than the 24-bit version. The TNT-Audio reviewer, who had tried the 506.24, claimed to have never heard such a sound, even from renowned players (Theta Digital, Wadia, Krell, Levinson)! The Meridian 506 uses a Philips CDM 12.5 mechanism with a laser built into the carriage and a Crystal CS4329-KS 20-bit Delta Sigma differential converter. A Philips SAA7310 chip, which was excellent at the time for correcting reading errors, transmits the data to the converter. The output stage is completely class A.

Meridian was the brand under which British designers Allen Boothroyd and Bob Stuart produced CD players. The Meridian MCD was the first CD player manufactured in England. The Boothroyd-Stuart style has always been no-frills, with no eye-catching lights, just the essentials, but without skimping on quality. The Meridian 500 series boasted a metal chassis with a blackened glass top and excellent electromagnetic isolation. Instead of the two separate chassis construction of the 200 series, the 500 has a single chassis with a metal bar dividing it into two areas, one for the mechanics and the other for the digital conversion circuits. This also makes the chassis more rigid. The thick, solid platter is made of a carbon and fibreglass composite material. The platter and carriage are one piece, the CD is placed there and stays there; once inside, everything is hermetically sealed, resulting in total acoustic isolation. A clamp, also made of carbon and fibreglass, with a Velcro mat rests on the CD, holding it steady and dampened.

Everything was wonderful, but it only lasted less than an hour in my system on 24 December 2025. It wouldn’t read CDs, played a few tracks intermittently and then stopped. The tray slid open by tilting the player forward. Something had gone wrong during transport. I didn’t feel like repairing it myself, too many unknowns. I sent it back…

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The Meridian 506.24 tested on tnt.audio.
Meridian 506 reviwed on Audiophile, 1994.