BOOM! Took out my Ascent woofer this afternoon

[BrianB]

Damn amplifier! My Threshold S/500 went down in a freak incident and must've thrown some DC voltage while it was freaking out. Now I need to repair both.

I switched amps to a spare Adcom GFA500 and the panel seems fine although the woofer appears to be dead.

Does anyone know if the woofer might be fused internally? Any way to tell if it's defintely the woofer or possibly the crossover?

These are the original Ascents, does anyone know the source of the newer replacement i woofers w/o going through M/L's 300% markup?

[roberto]

Damn amplifier! My Threshold S/500 went down in a freak incident and must've thrown some DC voltage while it was freaking out. Now I need to repair both.

I switched amps to a spare Adcom GFA500 and the panel seems fine although the woofer appears to be dead.

Does anyone know if the woofer might be fused internally? Any way to tell if it's defintely the woofer or possibly the crossover?

These are the original Ascents, does anyone know the source of the newer replacement i woofers w/o going through M/L's 300% markup?

Hola Brian...sorry about it...there is no internal fuse as far as I know. You can repair the woofer with a new coil, there are audio workshops that can do this with no problem. But now that you said it, upgrade your Ascents with aluminum woofers. To my ears, bass is tight and a little bit less distortion. Contact Jim Power at Martin Logan (jpower@martinlogan) for the best advise. Happy listening,
Roberto.

[Craig]

Just order a new woofer from ML and be done with it. A new complete woofer from Martin Logan is just $129 for the Ascent Paper Coned Woofer and $130 for the Aluminum Coned Woofer. That's very reasonable and I don't think you can beat that kind of customer service anywhere. It only takes about 10 minutes to swap it out.

I know this because I just bought one from ML to repair my son's Ascent woofer. I looked at a few aftermarket alternatives but that would have cost more with unpredictable results. If you get a replacement woofer from ML then you only need to purchase one woofer.

Of course, that's assuming its the woofer that blew. One way to find out is to swap the woofer to the other speaker and see if it plays. I don't know if there is an internal fuse in the Ascent.

[BrianB]

Good advice, Craig. I think I'll take it.

I'll need to pull the woofer out of my good Ascent and put it in the one that's having issues tomorrow. I'd LOVE for it to be a simple blown woofer. My fear is it's more than that and I'll need to send the entire unit back to KS for repair...

I run a Velodyne DD-12 w/these so the paper cone should be just fine as a replacement..

[JonFo]

It's about 98% likely it's just a blown woofer.

You could either do what Craig suggests, which is good advice, or maybe simpler, just order the woofer, pop it in and test. Less messing with drivers and connectors, less risk of damaging the boxes.

Trust me, I've replaced several woofers now, and the care to the box and overall speaker is the real time sink here.

[BrianB]

And the verdict is:....

I pulled the woofer this AM and put a meter across the leads. No continuity at all. Diagnosis: DEAD WOOFER

Well, that's actually very relieving. I'll give M/L a call Monday or Tuesday and have them ship me another one.

Looking at the driver, it's actually very nice w/the cast alum. frame and impregnated cone.

Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. I've been around this forum for a long time although I had to re-register (I'm a newbie all over again) because I don't think I ever updated my info when the new BB went up. I originally had one of the member systems in the first 10 but now see they've changed.

Brian

[Craig]

Good advice, Craig. I think I'll take it.

I'll need to pull the woofer out of my good Ascent and put it in the one that's having issues tomorrow. I'd LOVE for it to be a simple blown woofer. My fear is it's more than that and I'll need to send the entire unit back to KS for repair...

I run a Velodyne DD-12 w/these so the paper cone should be just fine as a replacement..

Just be sure to match whatever is in the other speaker. The Ascent i has the aluminum coned woofer and the original Ascent has the paper type. If you have the Ascent then you have the option of buying two new aluminum woofers as an upgrade if you think it is worth the extra $131.

When you put a new woofer in it will need some break-in time before it begins sounds like it should.

There are two things I really like about ML as a company and their speakers.

1. If something goes wrong, it can usually be fixed at home by swapping parts using simple tools and a little mechanical and/or electrical aptitude.
2. ML is very good about making parts available for older models and charge only a very reasonable fee if a replacement part is needed. They're also great about providing help on trouble shooting any problems.

[BrianB]

Just to conclude this post, I called M/L on Monday AM and ordered the woofer. I asked about the difference regarding the paper coned vs. alum. coned i woofers and whether I'd get any benefit from upgrading.

I was told the alum. woofer was implemented for asthetic reasons and there is no sonic improvement!

..Anyways, the new woofer arrived Wednesday and I installed it later that evening.

The speaker is once again singing wonderfully. Cudos to M/L CS.

Now to ship my 90 pound battleship of an amp S/500e back to Jon Soderberg for repairs in SoCal. The temporary Adcom sitting in just doesn't cut it in comparison.

[TrumpetDoug]

I cannot believe that ML told you there is no sonic difference between these two woofer choices. That blows my mind. Am I the only one that finds this wild? This post is rather old so am I in the minority? I was considering purchasing the "up-grade" woofers when I found out that this was the main dif between the Ascents and the Ascent Is. Should I rethink this? Help me out guys, has anyone made the ole switcheroo and laid out the coin for the new cones. Hopefully someone will check out this older thread and chime in.

Doug - out

[JonFo]

I cannot believe that ML told you there is no sonic difference between these two woofer choices. That blows my mind. Am I the only one that finds this wild? This post is rather old so am I in the minority? I was considering purchasing the "up-grade" woofers when I found out that this was the main dif between the Ascents and the Ascent Is. Should I rethink this? Help me out guys, has anyone made the ole switcheroo and laid out the coin for the new cones. Hopefully someone will check out this older thread and chime in.

Doug - out

Doug, the difference between paper cones and Alu is not as big as some would think, and often it's the paper that's better.

The i versions probably also have some crossover changes as well.

But if the service says the paper is same or better, then I'd beleive it.

Depending on how a driver is constucted, a stiffer surface like Alu might have some resonances at certain frequencies. I've seen some Alu mid-ranges that had horrible resonances in their operating range.

So don't sweat it. If you need a new driver, just get what the service dept. recommends.

[Craig]

The other main difference between the Ascent and the Ascent i is the "i" model has a newer type of electrostat panel with the microperf and clear spars. Any difference in the woofer would be subtle. Paper woofers and midrange cones are by no means inferior. Paper cones are still used in many high quality speakers.

Regardless, the price for a replacement woofer is very reasonable for either the paper or aluminum type.