We had a storm last week. We've had worse, but with this one it seems a surge event damaged a pair of Theos. The Stage-X center, wired to the exact same circuit and amplifier, seated directly between the damaged Theos, came fine.
After the storm, the electrostatic panels on both Theos were silent. The blue LED lights on both were also out. The cone woofers played normally, however, giving me some hope. I removed the AC power adapters from both speakers. I heard a rattle in one of them and knew that signaled an issue. Opened it up, and could see internal damage (including a fractured VIPer22 microchip). Opened up the second adapter and it had similar damage.
I called ML service and ordered replacement adapters. Plugged those in on arrival. The blue LED's came right on. Progress. Crossed my fingers and sent audio content. Both ESL's produced audible sound, but it was distorted. Scratchy is probably the best short description. A little bit like very bad AM reception on a very bad speaker. The sound is similar to what a JBL speaker did years ago when its crossover failed. Swapped in a new crossover and it fully solved the problem.
Reported those findings to ML service. Got a reply from Service saying maybe I should clean the panels. That seemed odd since I'd already sent in pictures of the damaged adapters and the storm event on the day both speakers stopped working. I asked specifically what next steps should be, and whether the crossover might be the cause. The response I got was:
I had ben thinking that a failed power supply would most likely leave the panels silent, not still producing sound. But that response tells me I'm wrong. I'd also figured a failed crossover might still be on the diagnosis list. Sounds like that's wrong too.
Haven't been able to get anyone from ML on the phone to discuss. Does anybody with experience working on ML speakers have any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
After the storm, the electrostatic panels on both Theos were silent. The blue LED lights on both were also out. The cone woofers played normally, however, giving me some hope. I removed the AC power adapters from both speakers. I heard a rattle in one of them and knew that signaled an issue. Opened it up, and could see internal damage (including a fractured VIPer22 microchip). Opened up the second adapter and it had similar damage.
I called ML service and ordered replacement adapters. Plugged those in on arrival. The blue LED's came right on. Progress. Crossed my fingers and sent audio content. Both ESL's produced audible sound, but it was distorted. Scratchy is probably the best short description. A little bit like very bad AM reception on a very bad speaker. The sound is similar to what a JBL speaker did years ago when its crossover failed. Swapped in a new crossover and it fully solved the problem.
Reported those findings to ML service. Got a reply from Service saying maybe I should clean the panels. That seemed odd since I'd already sent in pictures of the damaged adapters and the storm event on the day both speakers stopped working. I asked specifically what next steps should be, and whether the crossover might be the cause. The response I got was:
I had ben thinking that a failed power supply would most likely leave the panels silent, not still producing sound. But that response tells me I'm wrong. I'd also figured a failed crossover might still be on the diagnosis list. Sounds like that's wrong too.
Haven't been able to get anyone from ML on the phone to discuss. Does anybody with experience working on ML speakers have any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Last edited:
