kuebler
Active member
Hi guys,
I thought one or the other might benefit from my experiences. As some of you already know I had innocently purchased a pair of Summits during a US vacation, and when back home in Germany I thought they were defect. Only after long frustrations I found out that ML has designed a "locking circuit", which detects the European 50 Hz power frequency and shuts the amplifier down app. 15 db (amongst some other niceties). Because nobody would help me out, I have handcrafted a solution, whose trial-and-error implementation I enjoyed increasingly, because in doing so I could escape a trap which misguided ML policies had engineered for fooling me.
So it's also a joy for me to show others, how to deal with such a situation.
I thought about two reasonably feasible ways forward:
1. Building a 120 Volt 60 Hz power chain from using a standard automotive battery charger (app. 12 Volt 10 Ampere), connected to an automotive battery (app. 12V 70Ah), connected to an Alesi 1000i 115V/60Hz 1000 Watt sinewave inverter. The latter comes from the RV/boating commodity market and is specially confirmed for audio equipment usage. The chain would roughly cost 60+60+650 = 770 Euro.
2. Taking the risk of having not true sinewave power, and using a frequency converter from the automation industry, built for AC motor control.
I decided for the latter path and purchased a Siemens Sinamics G110 1.5kW AC converter ("Frequenzumrichter"), which is normally used for controlling a 220V AC motor with varying speeds. For the Sinamics G110 1.5 kW version (so plenty of power) they have a starter kit available, which I bought for 280 Euro incl. VAT. The Sinamics is connected to the 220V AC in my home, and it's output is connected to a mass market 1,000 Watt 220->110 Volt step down transformer costing 60 Euro. The step down transformer is a must, because the Sinamics cannot directly drive the Summits.
You can see the setup in the attached picture (of course under normal circumstances I hide the stuff). The step down transformer is opened on purpose for circulation, because the high frequency transient waves of the AC converter heat it up significantly. But for me this is no worrying problem, because in the worst case I have still a second one from my initial attempts to get the Summits working.
The Sinamics converter is very well protected against everything and doesn't warm up. The Summits take any voltage between 110 and 240 volt (provided it's not 50 Hz!), but there is a low level of hum which disappears virtually completely when setting the Sinamics to 2kHz switching frequency.
Which brings me to an interesting experience during my project: It is amazing, that a 280 Euro AC converter has a built in programmability, against which James Bond's trips into nuclear rocket launchers appear like excursions into triviality. Accordingly, while James Bond typically gets the problems solved within 2 minutes by just pressing the right buttons, I did spend about a week with all the parametes (hell I never wozuld have imagined such a bloody motor needing so complex controls
. To my dismay the whole thing proved again that I'm not James Bond . Now in hindsight, it wasn't so complicated, but when alien to automation systems, you get your dose of learning cycles . If anybody wants the parameters, I'm happy to provide them, as I said in hindsight it's easy: Buy the mentioned starter kit and the whole thing is a matter of 5 minutes, ok, say 30 minutes incl. soldering of the connectors.
As it appears we will see more MLs with built in power electronics, and thus one or the other might benefit from my experiences. In Germany the list price for a pair of Summits is 12,000 Euro (which at present translates into 14,800 USD) and expecting a discount of 15% from a local dealer makes you effectively paying 10,200 Euro. In the US you get the Summits for 8,500 USD (what I paid for incl. shipping). Some say they can be had even for 7,500 USD over the net, but I preferred to have a solid dealer. Importing them to Germany can be creatively done for app. 350 Euro, plus the conversion kit for 340 Euro, ending in a total of app. 7,500 Euro. I cannot say that I wouldn't have paid 10,200 Euro, but in the relaxed atmosphere during my US vacation the perceived "snip" of 7,500 definitively helped me and my wife to pull the trigger.
Martin Logan may or may not learn the lessons of global markets (more probably not, but it's their free decision). It's never a good idea to artificially restrict customers, i.e. introduce artificial technical barriers on purpose.
I thought one or the other might benefit from my experiences. As some of you already know I had innocently purchased a pair of Summits during a US vacation, and when back home in Germany I thought they were defect. Only after long frustrations I found out that ML has designed a "locking circuit", which detects the European 50 Hz power frequency and shuts the amplifier down app. 15 db (amongst some other niceties). Because nobody would help me out, I have handcrafted a solution, whose trial-and-error implementation I enjoyed increasingly, because in doing so I could escape a trap which misguided ML policies had engineered for fooling me.
So it's also a joy for me to show others, how to deal with such a situation.
I thought about two reasonably feasible ways forward:
1. Building a 120 Volt 60 Hz power chain from using a standard automotive battery charger (app. 12 Volt 10 Ampere), connected to an automotive battery (app. 12V 70Ah), connected to an Alesi 1000i 115V/60Hz 1000 Watt sinewave inverter. The latter comes from the RV/boating commodity market and is specially confirmed for audio equipment usage. The chain would roughly cost 60+60+650 = 770 Euro.
2. Taking the risk of having not true sinewave power, and using a frequency converter from the automation industry, built for AC motor control.
I decided for the latter path and purchased a Siemens Sinamics G110 1.5kW AC converter ("Frequenzumrichter"), which is normally used for controlling a 220V AC motor with varying speeds. For the Sinamics G110 1.5 kW version (so plenty of power) they have a starter kit available, which I bought for 280 Euro incl. VAT. The Sinamics is connected to the 220V AC in my home, and it's output is connected to a mass market 1,000 Watt 220->110 Volt step down transformer costing 60 Euro. The step down transformer is a must, because the Sinamics cannot directly drive the Summits.
You can see the setup in the attached picture (of course under normal circumstances I hide the stuff). The step down transformer is opened on purpose for circulation, because the high frequency transient waves of the AC converter heat it up significantly. But for me this is no worrying problem, because in the worst case I have still a second one from my initial attempts to get the Summits working.
The Sinamics converter is very well protected against everything and doesn't warm up. The Summits take any voltage between 110 and 240 volt (provided it's not 50 Hz!), but there is a low level of hum which disappears virtually completely when setting the Sinamics to 2kHz switching frequency.
Which brings me to an interesting experience during my project: It is amazing, that a 280 Euro AC converter has a built in programmability, against which James Bond's trips into nuclear rocket launchers appear like excursions into triviality. Accordingly, while James Bond typically gets the problems solved within 2 minutes by just pressing the right buttons, I did spend about a week with all the parametes (hell I never wozuld have imagined such a bloody motor needing so complex controls
. To my dismay the whole thing proved again that I'm not James Bond . Now in hindsight, it wasn't so complicated, but when alien to automation systems, you get your dose of learning cycles . If anybody wants the parameters, I'm happy to provide them, as I said in hindsight it's easy: Buy the mentioned starter kit and the whole thing is a matter of 5 minutes, ok, say 30 minutes incl. soldering of the connectors.As it appears we will see more MLs with built in power electronics, and thus one or the other might benefit from my experiences. In Germany the list price for a pair of Summits is 12,000 Euro (which at present translates into 14,800 USD) and expecting a discount of 15% from a local dealer makes you effectively paying 10,200 Euro. In the US you get the Summits for 8,500 USD (what I paid for incl. shipping). Some say they can be had even for 7,500 USD over the net, but I preferred to have a solid dealer. Importing them to Germany can be creatively done for app. 350 Euro, plus the conversion kit for 340 Euro, ending in a total of app. 7,500 Euro. I cannot say that I wouldn't have paid 10,200 Euro, but in the relaxed atmosphere during my US vacation the perceived "snip" of 7,500 definitively helped me and my wife to pull the trigger.
Martin Logan may or may not learn the lessons of global markets (more probably not, but it's their free decision). It's never a good idea to artificially restrict customers, i.e. introduce artificial technical barriers on purpose.
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