Martin Logan Mosaic problem

[vdell]

Hi,

I have bumped into a quite annoying problem with my martin logan mosaic speaker. It occasionally (but often) happens that the right speaker starts to give disorted clicks, pops and scratches and usually shortly after that the channel mutes almost complitely. It happens more often with quiet volume levels and sometimes it fixes itself (for a while) when I add some volume from my amp (Primare A30.1). Also, even if the speaker doesn't mute, there is still disortion in the channel.

I checked to see if it's really a speaker problem by switching the cables (right to left / left to right) from the speakers. The probelm remained in the right speaker.

I also tried to vacuum dust from the speaker after it was disconnected for about 4 hours (maybe it should have been a longer time) but again no help.

I sure hope that someone could help here!

Thanks in advancde!

 

[roberto]

Hi,

I have bumped into a quite annoying problem with my martin logan mosaic speaker. It occasionally (but often) happens that the right speaker starts to give disorted clicks, pops and scratches and usually shortly after that the channel mutes almost complitely. It happens more often with quiet volume levels and sometimes it fixes itself (for a while) when I add some volume from my amp (Primare A30.1). Also, even if the speaker doesn't mute, there is still disortion in the channel.

I checked to see if it's really a speaker problem by switching the cables (right to left / left to right) from the speakers. The probelm remained in the right speaker.

I also tried to vacuum dust from the speaker after it was disconnected for about 4 hours (maybe it should have been a longer time) but again no help.

I sure hope that someone could help here!

Thanks in advancde!

Hola Vdell. Welcome. Your Mosaics are dynamic speakers, and because of this, are not possible to produce any ticks or odd noises. You are saying that you did change the cables, but to me, your problem remains in your power amplifier. It is common that the first stage of amplification, is the culprit of these odd noises. sometimes it is the first transistor, or the first differencial amp...when an electrostatic speaker makes odd noises, you can disconnect it from the amplifiier and still it wil continued doing these funny noises. If you still think that your right Mosaic is the one, just disconnect it from the speaker cable and leave it there for all the time that might convinced you that it is not the problem...another thing, when you have the noise, your amplifier must be turned on, right?...I think that you need service your amplifier...happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[DTB300]

I checked to see if it's really a speaker problem by switching the cables (right to left / left to right) from the speakers. The probelm remained in the right speaker.

Just to make sure, also try swapping speakers to see if it moves with speakers. You cable move seems to point to the one speaker, but swapping them will tell you for sure.

Dan

 

[vdell]

Hola Vdell. Welcome. Your Mosaics are dynamic speakers, and because of this, are not possible to produce any ticks or odd noises. You are saying that you did change the cables, but to me, your problem remains in your power amplifier. It is common that the first stage of amplification, is the culprit of these odd noises. sometimes it is the first transistor, or the first differencial amp...when an electrostatic speaker makes odd noises, you can disconnect it from the amplifiier and still it wil continued doing these funny noises. If you still think that your right Mosaic is the one, just disconnect it from the speaker cable and leave it there for all the time that might convinced you that it is not the problem...another thing, when you have the noise, your amplifier must be turned on, right?...I think that you need service your amplifier...happy listening,
Roberto.

Thanks for the reply! I will test with my second amp (NAD C720BEE) and see if the problem remains. I'll let everyone know the results after the testing.

 

[vdell]

Just to make sure, also try swapping speakers to see if it moves with speakers. You cable move seems to point to the one speaker, but swapping them will tell you for sure.

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean with swapping speakers, Move the actual speaker or switch the cables from the amp or what. Could you please elaborate?

Hola Vdell. Welcome. Your Mosaics are dynamic speakers, and because of this, are not possible to produce any ticks or odd noises. You are saying that you did change the cables, but to me, your problem remains in your power amplifier. It is common that the first stage of amplification, is the culprit of these odd noises. sometimes it is the first transistor, or the first differencial amp...when an electrostatic speaker makes odd noises, you can disconnect it from the amplifiier and still it wil continued doing these funny noises. If you still think that your right Mosaic is the one, just disconnect it from the speaker cable and leave it there for all the time that might convinced you that it is not the problem...another thing, when you have the noise, your amplifier must be turned on, right?...I think that you need service your amplifier...happy listening,

Unfortunately it didn't help to change the amp. The problem remainded in the right channel.

 

[vdell]

Oh, and I forgot to mention how my connections go in my system so here they are:

Soundcard (M-Audio Delta 1010LT)->Stello DA220->Musical Fidelity X-10 Vacuum Tube Buffer->Primare A30.1

 

[roberto]

Oh, and I forgot to mention how my connections go in my system so here they are:

So we are going to track the problem...first of all, your Mosaic are not the ones for sure...your noise can come from your preamp. too..the electrostatic speakers must be connected to the mains A.C. and this is the reason why they are still producing odd noises, even if they aren´t any connection at the binding posts. Your Mosaic are dynamic and can not produce any odd sound by itself.
If you had changed the amps, connect the left output from the preamplifier, to the right for a moment, then the right to the left...if you want, just connect the amplifier to the speakers, without any rca connector at all for check noise...and tell us your findings...
Roberto.

 

[DTB300]

I'm not sure if I understand what you mean with swapping speakers, Move the actual speaker or switch the cables from the amp or what. Could you please elaborate?

To truely find the problem, you have to systematically make changes and note if the change makes the noise move from one speaker to the other.

My suggestion was to move the left speaker to the right, and the right speaker to the left - just speakers, do not move or change any cables. Does the problem move to the left speaker, or does it stay with the right? If it moves, I would suspect the speaker, if it stays on the right, it is something else upstream from the speaker.

It is stayed on the right side, you just work you way back from the speakers a component or cable/IC at a time to find out where the problem is coming from.

Dan

 

[Craig]

When you change the speaker cables you have to change it at the speaker end of the cable and not the amp end. You have to make the switch at the speaker end to isolate the speaker. If you do this and the same speaker has the problem then it is no doubt the speaker with the problem.

 

[vdell]

Ok, I'm also coming to the conclusion that the speakers are indeed just fine. Yesterday I tested to directly connect an mp3 player to the amp and it sounded just fine (well, as fine as an mp3 can).

Now I just need to find the real cause of the problem but I think I'll take the problem to another forum since this is really a forum (any suggestions about a suitable forum?) about the speakers!

Anyway, many thanks to everyone that helped!

 

[vdell]

OK, so I think that the problem accidentally fixed it self when I was listening to some music and the volume got way too high (like ear breaking) due to a mistake that I made. The volume was high only for few seconds or so and after that everything has worked perfectly.

If someone knows how this could have solved the problem then kindly let me know so I could learn something about the problem.

 

[roberto]

OK, so I think that the problem accidentally fixed it self when I was listening to some music and the volume got way too high (like ear breaking) due to a mistake that I made. The volume was high only for few seconds or so and after that everything has worked perfectly.

If someone knows how this could have solved the problem then kindly let me know so I could learn something about the problem.

Hola...sooner or later you will have it back...what you have, it is a faulty noisy electronic component...and once you had noise, it will come back again, I wish that you could fix it, happy listening,
Roberto.