A few n00b questions

[MotorToad]

Hi, folks, and thanks for the many welcomes to the club. I've intro'd my system (so far! ) here http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=3697, but I've got a couple of things that are tugging at my mind. My friend through whom I found these speakers has the manual, so some of this might seem rather obvious as I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

What special care do I need to keep these in perfect order? They came from a clean smoke-free house with good equipment driving them (a medium-sized Sumo amp and complimentary components). They've probably never even been exposed to foul language! Should I turn off the power to them if they're not going to be used for a few days? Should I not remove power? Does it matter?

I'm using a 60 Wpc NAD 2100 amp, and I'm not fully comfortable that it's got enough juice to deal with the low impedance when I want to really let them breathe. I've been very happy with the amp pushing my Mirage M-490s. Using search, I've seen some discussion of tube amps on newer MLs, but nothing much on the Sequels. Anyone using a similar amp?

I've been perusing ebay and there is a lot of Carver amps there. This seems to be the best bang-for-the-buck solution as I have liked all the Carver stuff I've been exposed to so far. Is there anything in particular from Carver I should avoid? I saw one ad mention that the mechanical meters didn't work but "all of them do that," which doesn't seem likely to me. I think I would prefer the look of the VU meters to LEDs, but that would be of very little importance to a purchase. Any other really good amps for a reasonable price? I've been thinking Rotel, too. They had a very good reputation when I was buying stuff before, but I haven't been exposed to much from them since '93 or so.

Thanks in advance, I hope I'm not asking run of the mill RTFM n00b questions!

 

[eknuds01]

NAD is still a decent choice:

http://nadelectronics.com/reviews/The-Absolute-Sound-C162-C272-Review

Take a gander at audiogon.com for some used gear.

There are TONS of excellent brands: Rotel, Mark Levinson, Carver, Sunfire, Krell, Conrad Johnson, Classe, Pass...

I don't speak for everyone, but a lot of people will tell you to look for good, quality used gear. Instead of dropping 1500 for a new amp from the store, consider a used Sunfire (or whatever) at the same price. Chances are that old sunfire retailed for like 3500 AND if you want to sell it after a few years chances are you'll retain much of the value.

In any event make sure you listen to a bunch of different amps before droppiing tons of cash.

Erik

 

[Jeff Zaret]

If they are indeed the original Sequels and not the Sequel II's then I would unplug them when not using them. I believe but not completely sure you can still get the power regulator boards from ML. What these did late in the production of Sequels and then the SL3's and others which followed was to turn off the power to the panels. It was a "specified" time (I don't remember) when it turned off and also when it "sensed" a signal from the amp they would energize. One of the reasons behind this was with power always applied they would attract dust. These may already have that change and the only way to know for sure is to open the electronic box at the base of the panel in the back and see by serial number or mod number and then call ML.

I hope this helps.

I also believe you can download and then print the Sequel manual from ML. THis is what I did.

Good Luck


Jeff

 

[MotorToad]

Sweet, thanks for the info. They are the original Sequels but I don't know what if any updates they've gotten. The previous owner didn't mention anything and I'm sure he would have... He's a ML owner, obviously a fine, upstanding gentleman!

The Adcom fancy power strip has outlets for unswitched, switched source components, and switched amps (it turns on source components first and shuts the amps off first so the speakers don't get any pops from source components). I plugged the speakers in the amp outlet so they're off when the amp is off.

There's so much Carver stuff out there used I'm getting this "too-good-to-be-true" vibe about it. 300 Wpc, runs cool, inexpensive used... what's the catch?

 

[Joey_V]

There's so much Carver stuff out there used I'm getting this "too-good-to-be-true" vibe about it. 300 Wpc, runs cool, inexpensive used... what's the catch?

Not sure if there is one... Cherian is a fan of the Carvers, he'll respond soon enough.

Joey