Ascents don't seem to work properly

[jhinfll]

I recently bought a pair of used Ascent speakers. They sounded ok at the sellers home (it was a very hard room, tile floor, bare walls). But when I got them home, they sound terrible. The seller was driving them with a Krell amp. I have an Onkyo TX-NR1008 receiver. What strike me as odd is that they sound the same whether or not they are plugged in (120v a/c). Any ideas?

 

[Rich]

I recently bought a pair of used Ascent speakers. They sounded ok at the sellers home (it was a very hard room, tile floor, bare walls). But when I got them home, they sound terrible. The seller was driving them with a Krell amp. I have an Onkyo TX-NR1008 receiver. What strike me as odd is that they sound the same whether or not they are plugged in (120v a/c). Any ideas?

Hard to help you without more information. What exactly do you mean by "terrible." Describe in detail the sound, including a description of the highs, mids, and bass sound, and things like imaging and soundstaging. How do you have them set up? Describe your room setup and room acoustics.

It could be that your receiver is part of the problem. A home theater receiver is not going to make these speakers sing like quality Krell electronics. It could also be that something is damaged internally or that the panels need replacing. But it is impossible to diagnose without more information.

Don't be phased by the fact that they sound the same unplugged. They will hold a charge and sound the same for thirty minutes or more after they are unplugged. Unplug them overnight, and then see how they sound while unplugged vs. plugged. You should hear a big difference.

 

[97ChameleonTA]

To add to the above, I purchased a pair of Ascents that I auditioned in a similar setting as yours and they sounded great. Once I got them home I felt they were lacking something. After some investigation, I discovered that one of the woofers wasn't producing any sound. I knew it had been working prior and I feared that somehow in hooking them up I may have fried something. I pulled the crossover panel and looked for anything obvious and also checked all the caps with a meter and everything checked out. I then removed the woofer and found that the two bare wires leading from the voice coil to the connector were touching. I separated them and, voila!, problem solved.

I can only assume that this happened during transit as I had to lay the speakers on their sides to get them home. Just offering that up as a potential place to start your search.

As far as the panel working when not plugged in, that is normal. They are able to hold a charge for quite a while after AC power is removed. They will slowly taper off in volume as the charge is depleted.

 

[Audioseduction]

I just love the friendly support on this site!

 

[jhinfll]

To elaborate, the bass is fine. I now realize that an amp is in my near future, but I'll save that for another post. The problem is that I can barely hear the mids or highs. And what I can hear sounds like I have a pillow over each speaker. I have tried using the jumpers, bi-amping, and then using a single source to the woofers by themselves, and then to the stats by themselves. Nothing I do really changes anything. The woofers seem to be fine, but the electrostatic panels don't really produce much sound, and it is definately no what I expected. I fell in love with Magnaplaners back when I was in college, and I was hoping these would be even better.

 

[MOON]

It sounds strange. Those Ascent panels should be making beautiful music. I have heard Ascent models on several ocassions and they always sounded fantastic.

As Rich said, that receiver really isn't helping matters. You may want to unplug the speakers over night and vaccumm the panels the next day. Use a shop vac keeping the hose end just off the stator panel so you won't scratch it.

Vaccumm the whole panel, then replug them in and see if that helps.

Cheers, Greg

 

[Rich]

Sounds like you have a disconnect somewhere. You might do better to contact Martin Logan's technical support and get them to walk you through troubleshooting the problem. If they sounded fine at the seller's home, and then sound horrible at your house, it sounds like something happened in transit.

 

[tsv_1]

To elaborate, the bass is fine. I now realize that an amp is in my near future, but I'll save that for another post. The problem is that I can barely hear the mids or highs. And what I can hear sounds like I have a pillow over each speaker. I have tried using the jumpers, bi-amping, and then using a single source to the woofers by themselves, and then to the stats by themselves. Nothing I do really changes anything. The woofers seem to be fine, but the electrostatic panels don't really produce much sound, and it is definately no what I expected. I fell in love with Magnaplaners back when I was in college, and I was hoping these would be even better.

Are you 100% sure that ~110VAC is reaching the panels? Did you try plugging a lamp or something into the wall outlets just to make sure? Just trying to eliminate all possibilities.

 

[jhinfll]

Yea, actually that's the first thing I thought of. I verified there was power to each of the speakers, but that wasn't the problem.

 

[SteveInNC]

Based on your description, it still sounds like the high voltage that charges that stats is not working. Even if power is making it to the cabinet, something may have come loose (or broken) in the internal electronics that boosts the 120VAC to the charge voltages necessary to power the panels. I have Ascent Is, and also a pair of Sources. When I demoed the Sources, the dealer initially forgot to power the panels on them (he had moved them to a better listening room at my request) and it sounded much like you describe, a pillow over the panels.

FWIW, a decent receiver will power Ascents, they just won't sound as good as they might with a good, high-current amp. I powered mine with a Denon 3808CI for quite awhile, then sprung for a used Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated to serve as a mains power amp. There is a noticable difference in detail, particularly on highs. The Ascents have a descending impedance curve that drops as low as 0.8 ohms as you approach the higher end of their frequency range. Said impedance is hard for many amp designs to drive effectively. Note, they will still sound good, just not as good without a high current amp.

 

[jhinfll]

Thanks for all the help. I sent the back panels off to ML today and they're going to check them out for me. I couldn't see anything wrong with them, so hopefully they can figure it out.