Unpacked a pair of Stylos after 10 years - strange issue with the ESL panel.

[dovin]

Hi All,

I moved from USA to India in 2001. I had a pair of Stylos as Main speakers and a Cinema as center (magnepan mmg as surround) in a HT setup in US. When I moved I threw out all other stuff but could not give up the speakers. So I packed them up and shipped them to India. Due to many reasons (including space and voltage difference etc) I could not use them for 10 years. Now I finally did all the concealed wiring right (in India houses are built of concrete and adding new wiring is not easy) and also installed a voltage converter for the speaker sockets. I have a Yamaha DSP A1 receiver (also shipped from US) to drive these speakers.

After opening the boxes I found a lot of dust inside so I throughly vacuumed the speakers from all sides. There is hardly any visible dust now. When I finally connected the speaker wires, powered up the speaker and started playing a CD the sound came out as beautiful as I remembered in the past. But within 5 minutes it went dull and boomy. After some experimentation I found that the ESL panel has stopped playing any sound.

If I switch off the power supply and wait for 1 minute and switch it on again, the ESL panel plays beautiful music again, but will slowly go down and stop playing in 4-5 minutes. This keeps repeating. If I turn on the power supply immediately after switching, it does not have any effect and the ESL panel remains dead. The playing resumes only if I wait for close to a minute after switching off the supply.

The atmosphere is dustier than US and quite humid. The other difference is that the power supply is 50hz and not 60hz as in US.

I've contacted local ML support in Mumbai, who did not have a clue except to suggest that I should _try_ changing the panel and it _may_ help.

If any one can give any pointers it will be a BIG help. The fact that music plays beautifully for a few minutes each time I switch off and on the power to the speakers is giving me some hope.

I read about washing the speaker panels. Maybe 10 years of stationary dust is causing this and I should try a wash ?

Or could this be an issue with the power supply of the speaker that turns off the power after a few minutes automatically for some reason ? I have read they have auto power shutoff when no music is playing. May be this circuit is acting up ?

Any help or suggestions whatsoever is greatly appreciated as I can't imagine just throwing out these beautiful speakers.

thanks in advance.. Dovin

 

[c_morse]

Sounds like the power supply to me.

So you're saying that you're running 120V 50 Hz to them as opposed to 120V 60 Hz? If I read that right I'd say it could be the culprit.

 

[Peter Soderberg]

it is most likely the 50 versus 60hz issue and unfortunately a power converter wont help unless you can change the frequency with it. Most don't. Please contact ML service for parts needed to convert your speakers. Not hard or expensive to do, but i believe at the root of your troubles.

 

[invenio]

Better idea.

Why not just move back to the good old US of A?

 

[dovin]

Better idea.

Why not just move back to the good old US of A?

No reason but the formidable lady officer at the Mumbai US consulate, when I explain 60 hz power supply as the reason for wanting a visa

 

[dovin]

c_morse/peter - Yes, I have a voltage convertor from 230/50hz to 110/50hz.

Does anyone know if the power supply (at least for the ESL panels) is the same for most ML models ? Stylos being an old model, it will be easier to replace if its same as for later models in stock.

A local ML service engineer has promised to come by this week. Keeping fingers crossed...

 

[JayJayHache]

Alternative idea that's easy to try - buy or borrow a USA spec inverter (120 watt model costs only 30 bucks or so) then test it with a battery to see if the problem goes (inverter will output 120v at 60hz) - if successful then run them with the inverter going forward from a 12v dc mains power supply.

One inverter will power your entire set of MLs...

c_morse/peter - Yes, I have a voltage convertor from 230/50hz to 110/50hz.

Does anyone know if the power supply (at least for the ESL panels) is the same for most ML models ? Stylos being an old model, it will be easier to replace if its same as for later models in stock.

A local ML service engineer has promised to come by this week. Keeping fingers crossed...