Strange problem with Ascent

Hello Martin Logan fans!

my friend and I acquired a nice pair of Ascent in Amsterdam. (see my introduction) They are build 2001, panels completely new in december 2008, from the distributor in the Netherlands.
They sounded very good at the sellers house and listened to them for one hour. Although he just had a tubeamp with just 12Watt, all was fine. We than moved them sideways in the back of the car, protected the Ascents with some blancets and drove them 250km home.
As we powered them up in our listening room, they sounded awfull!!!
The electrostatic panels have almost no output, both sides exactly the same problem. When disconnecting the sub, you can hear all frequencies but just very low output. As we put up the volume it starts to distord really quick.
The power LED lights up as signal comes in. When the powercord is pulled, than the sound from the panel disappears alltogether.
We even tried different amplifiers and changed all cabling and sources. Before we connceted the Ascents we checked the whole audio system with some other speakers, to go shure all is fine.

Can someone of please you help us with this?

Audiomania

When I bought my Vantages pre-owned, I had exactly the same experience: Very restricted highs, very low output from the panels. When I auditioned them at the seller, they sounded fine.

Over the next 2-3 weeks, I would vacuum them regularly (3 times a week to begin with), and they would gradually improve.

In hindsight, I think what might have happened is that the mylar attracted some moisture during transport, and that a thin layer of dust would attach itself from the blankets to this moisture, effectively increasing the mass of the diaphragm considerable. Over the course of a few weeks, the film would dry up completely, and the dust would gradually be vacuumed off.

I have now had my speakers for about a 18 months, and after they gradually got better and better during the first couple of weeks, I am now very pleased with them: Full output at all frequencies!

I hope you will have a similar experience, so try to be patient, and vacuum regularly in the beginning.

Getting there..

Hi Bevensee,

Thanks for your answer! You were absolutely right with the moisture on the panels. The problem literally vaporised as we let the Ascent’s dry-out for the last few days. After the first tones the difference was immediately noticeable. The vacuuming had also a positive effect on the quality in the mid’s and high’s. To be patient was the hardest part!

Thanks and keep on vacuuming,

Audiomania

Glad to hear they are opening up! Good luck with them, and congrat's with the world cup going to Germany!