Hi from Steve - Sarasota FL

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stevick

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Jul 17, 2019
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Location
Sarasota, FL
Hi Gang,

I must admit to being somewhat intimidated by the level of audiophilia here. I'm sad to say that I'm not at your level. While I did dream as a young man of having high end equipment, budget realities/priorities had always limited me to more affordable stuff -- Klipsch Heresy was my longtime mainstay for speakers, then Monsoon Sonogistix FPF-600. As I aged and raised a family, I had continued to long for finer equipment, but again, other priorities were present. I retired a couple of years ago, but the bug never left me. I did know of and admire ML speakers, just never expected I would ever own any.

Fast forward to last weekend. I noticed a 2-hour-old classified listing in a neighborhood forum by a lady offering ML speakers "as is" for FREE, which were said to be 15 years old, sitting in a garage for the last 5 years and in unknown condition. The accompanying picture showed a very clean looking 5-piece set. Needless to say, I immediately sent a message indicating I would be glad to take them and she consented. I picked them up the next day and was definitely not disappointed -- it was 2x Aerius i in oak trim, 2x Script, and a Cinema! She was very gracious, mentioning that her phone had been ringing non-stop since my contact. BTW, I did not take advantage of her - she was well aware of what they were, but was happy to give them to someone who would appreciate them, as I assured her I would. She said her husband had replaced them years ago, but almost cried when she told him she was letting them go. I dashed home with them and read everything I could about them, all-the-while chomping at the bit to find out if they were working. I learned of the dust vacuuming/cleaning procedures, which I employed; of the dark prospect that the aged panels might be faulty; and the fantastic support ML provides for their products. When all was ready, I finally started the testing process...

The first Aerius I hooked up sounded great, as did the second Aerius, and the Cinema too! Alas, one of the two Scripts had a problem - the woofer worked but nothing from the panel. I also noticed that the woofer cover had slid up under the panel and inch or so. From my reading in this forum I suspected that the problem may be a HV wire connection being sheared loose from the stator by the slippage. I contacted ML support for disassembly and troubleshooting guidance and received a VERY helpful and timely response from Ron. I disassembled the unit and sure enough found the black wire had its solder connection sheared off the rear stator - easy fix! Just to be sure of no other issues, however, I swapped in the good panel from the working Script and it did not work, suggesting a bigger problem with the electronics (maybe caused by the loose HV wire shorting?). I opened the box and saw nothing charred, discolored, or noticeably problematic. When power was applied, the red LED on the power supply lit (even with no signal). I called Ron and he sent instructions for the power supply bias voltage testing procedure (requires a giga ohm resistor to use a standard multimeter, which is hard to come by). He also delivered the sad news that a new PS board would cost $380+shipping, but obviously I really can't or shouldn't complain.

As I write this, I am now enjoying my "new" fronts and center (even with my inferior SLS surrounds). I only wish I had younger ears so I could appreciate their performance as much as their imposing beauty. I'm hoping to soon get the Script sorted and get those online too. When I do, I will have a home theater setup to die for! I hope I didn't bore you all to death, but I am truly pleased and excited to be among your ranks - even if undeserving...

Steve K.
 
Hola and welcome to the Martin Logan family,

What a beautiful story Steve. You hit the jackpot. The Aerius I are great speakers, and also the rest!. Yes, they sing very nice. Do a serious stat panels vacuum, specially at the front of the stat panels, where the conductive coat is. Make sure they are free of dirt and dust. ML offers five year warranty on their new stat panels, if you might think to do a replacement. But first, there is a trick that sometimes the panels come back to live, and this is: the shower cleaning. Here is the link of the procedure for to the cleaning:

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~t...n Logan Quest Stator Panel Shower Washing.pdf

This method had saved a lot of ML users with great results.

Steve, enjoy your new sound!

Happy listening!!!
 
Thanks for the welcome to roberto, TomDac, and the family. Here's an update. Turns out I must have been hamhanded with my testing. Just as I set up the order for the PS board, I decided to test again -- just to make sure. The good stator I swapped in worked this time! With the same hamhanded skill, I managed to re-solder the connection onto the stator on the faulty panel. Cleaned them all up, reassembled, and all is great. My only remaining task is wall mounting the Scripts. I did not receive the small hardware for mounting the brackets. ML is sold out of them, so I'll be off to the hardware store today to see what I can put together. I'm now only hours away from having my dream set-up going.
 
Steve,

Glad you stumbled upon those vintage ML's! I started my ML journey with Aerius i's. They were/are fabulous. Should be relatively easy to cobble together a wall mount bracket for the Scripts.

BTW, I suggest you check out the Sarasota and Suncoast Audiophile Societies (sister clubs) on Meetup. There are quite a few of us that have ML's.
 
Last edited:
Steve, welcome to the fold , congrats on the 'find' !
 

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