[Jimbo]

Hi....I just bought a pair of SL3's from a pawn shop (Perfect condition !) for $1000. !!!

They are INCREDIBLE.

I'm using them in my theater room. I decided to take down the music only area upstairs for the wifes sake and concentrate on the theater.

I have:

NAD 3120 (the same as 3020) 25 wpc, 2 ch, +3db headroom, 20-20k hz

NAD 2100 - 50wpc, 2 ch. - +6db headroom, 03-100k hz

Adcom 2535 - 60wpc, 4 ch -- ? headroom , ??


The speakers are bi-wire, bi-amp capable.


I could run Adcom to all four inputs and make it simple.

or

USe 3120 for mid/highs, 2100 for bass.

or

Adcom for bass, 2100 for mid/highs


Any idea's with the amps I have what might be best or what would you do ?

Please don't tell me to buy another amp cause I can't right now.


Anyone ?

Thanks,

Jimbo

 

[Jimbo]

Bump....

 

[mwan]

Jimbo,


Congratulations on your find! some unlucky person is going to go back to try and get his prizes back and poof! you scored!


Sl3's sound delicious when driven properly, I know that the NAD's offer a lot of headroom are they stable into 2Ohms?. I think that while you could bi amp the units you amplification may not be sufficient. I have a friend who was running his Aerius on a Rotel integrated and while it worked it didn't sing! Try putting the Adcom for Bass, and the 2100 for the panels as you suggested, first sign of clipping go look at the pawnshop for the guys amp


Good luck and welcome to Statsville!


Miles

 

[Mark Seaton]

Jimbo,


I'll second the confirmation of a good find. If someone held a gun to my head and made me make a quick decision, I would think that as a single amplifier, your Adcom 2535 could sound the best when used to bi-amp each channel. The NAD 2100 would likely be the most behavied of the bunch when run just normal stereo operation. You will NOT want to bridge the Adcom as it will then be current limited and much of the supposed power gains will be lost. The main problem passive bi-amping is that you need to have amplifiers with matched gain or with gain controls in them. The two NAD amplifiers may very well have identical gain, which you could find out from NAD. I.E. - does the same signal into each amp result in the same magnitude output? If this is not the case, either the panel or the woofer will be too high in level.


Often the SL3s can work well and sound good with small power, yet they will be limited in volume. The larger your room is and the farther you are sitting from the speakers, the more you will welcome additional power. So, I would first try bi-amping with the Adcom, then try with the pair of NAD amps. This may suprise you, but I would strongly suggest you try using the more powerful 2100 on the PANEL, particularly considering the more difficult load and both large and high content frequency range it is covering.


Finally, if you have a healthy subwoofer, setting the speakers to small will reduce power to them and can often make them sound much cleaner and dynamic. Of course this presumes that your subwooferi is as or more capable than your SL3s.


Most importantly, enjoy experimenting and listening.

 

[Caspyr]

I love my SL3's......I have to agree though that your next purchase should be more power. They like a lot of it......You may want to call Magnolia HiFi (notice your in the area) and see if you could cause any damage since they are rated for a MINIMUM 80 watts per channel, but bet you won't find anyone who won't say you really need a lot more than that.........

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks MWAN and Mark !

Good advice.

I have an NHT SW2 10" sub that works well with these.

Maybe I could leave the Adcom bridged for the center ch and use the other 2ch for the bass on the SL3 and then use the NAD 2100 for the highs...?

The ADcom has bias level pods in back and both NAD's have them in front.

I could just not use the 3121 nad for now.

I like the idea of the 2100 for the panels ...

the frequency issues and the difficult load makes sense.

The Adcom may have more Umph to tackle the bass AND if I set them to small they won't have to work too hard anyway. I have a radio shack meter so I could try and match level some how...

What would be the best way to do that ?

 

[Jimbo]

ALSO.....

The same guy had pawned an older Pioneer Pro Logic receiver a pair of Infinity rear speaks and a Monster Power 3500 power conditioner.

I grabed the power conditioner for $75 !

Then a week later the SL3's came out on the floor and I snagged them.

This poor guy must have been in bad shape to get rid of that stuff !

My friend is the owner of the pawn shop and he said the guy pawned his stuff and moved away knowing all along he wouldn't be picking up his stuff.

Porr chap !! Lucky ME !!!

 

[Jimbo]

I put the NAD2100 on the high end and 2 ch of the Adcom on the bass.

This sounds unfreakin' real !!!


There are better speakers...somewhere

There are better amps, and better amps to use on these speakers...

But for what I paid for these and having the amps already

this is the best setup I've had to date.


Thanks for your replies ! They helped.


Now, back to listening to the music.......................

Jimbo

 

[Jimbo]

I came down this morn and started listening and OH SH#@ !

The left speaker sounded terrible. The mids are really distorted.

The highs sound ok I guess kind of bad but the mid freqs sound horrible. I don't know what happened.

I tried changing cables, amps, cd player, preamp....it all adds up to the same speaker every time. Can these things blow like a reg cone or is it the x-over maybe ?

I tried unplugging for several hours to de-static them then I vacuumed them, all like the manual says to do, but that one still sounds like crap.

I sent ML an Email to service manager but these are second hand from a pawn shop. I have no receipt of original purchase. I know the owner of the pawn shop but what would I say. These works GREAT until this morning. Could they have been bad and got worse in 6 days or ????

I am REALLY bummed...these speakers are the best one's I've ever had and I can't stand the thought of losing the speakers and the $$.

Anyone know how expensive Martin Logan is to fix ? I suppose I would have to send it(them) back to ML in Kansas ? Very expensive just to ship ! DANG IT...

Any idea's.....................

 

[roni44]

Maybe needs new panel?? I would try your local Martinlogan Dealer's salesperson for some answer. If just panel, the replacement from ML should be around 450.00

 

[Derb]

Jimbo


I'm running an all Martin-Logan Theater. Requests up L-R, Scenario surrounds, Logos Front. I had a similar problem with my Requests. The amps are Mono Block Adcoms 565's and I had the same distortion in both channels. A kind of crackling. I figured it had to be someplace other than in the amps since they are mono blocks, and the likely hood that both amps would fail at the same time, well you can see the problem. Turns out it was both amps, some type of bias problem and leaky caps. Even though they are way out warranty 8 or 9 years, Adcom fixed them for free, I convinced them it was partly their fault after having them up-graded to balanced inputs. Start tearing things apart one at a time until the distortion goes away, even cables can cause problems. In the process of my Adcoms being fixed, I went out and bought some Krell 250 Mono Blocks, man ohh man do the ReQuests like them, the Adcoms now power my surrounds. Good Luck

 

[Jimbo]

I've replaced the amps, the wires, the cd players, the pre-amp.

Then I opened the back up and looked in. WOW..nice job inside.

Anyway...The main board has all the power and main wires going to it so I switched with the other speakers and still the same thing.

I don't think am x-over would do this ? yes, no ?

If it's not that main pc board that I switched (which we now know it's not) then I suppose it must be the panel.

I thought those were supposed to be indestructible !

The manual says they poked dozens of holes in them and they still worked/sounded fine.

What would go wrong with the panel ? anyone know ?


$450 !! Jeesh, should I expect the pawn shop to help with that or is it buyer beware all the way on this one ? I know the owner so I am going to mention it to him. Maybe we could split the cost.

I wouldn't expect him to understand but I just had these for 6 days and wham ! one goes bad.

If anyone knows what happens when panels go bad, let me know.

If not, I'll let you all know what finally happens...

Thanks for all before and anymore advice you might have.

Jimbo

 

[Nathan Ivey]

goto audioasylum.com and post a question in the planar asylum.

 

[mwan]

Jimbo the warranty on the units is transferrable. If they were sold in the last yr or so the warrenty may even have been 5 yr. The guys at ML are very reasonable and try to support the end user I would try and contact them ...


good luck


Miles

 

[DenisT]

The Xover can do it. I had a tweeter that was hissing and crackling. Turned my system upside down. Got new tweeter on warrantee -- no go. It was the xover - cracked cold solder joint.

Xover replaced on warrentee

 

[Jimbo]

I spoke with Jim at Martin Logan. Nice guy !

He heard what happened and what I've tried then thought he knew what ot was. he suspected the little pc board that has a large heat sink. It kind of a limiter of sorts. He said to disconnect it, tape up the wire and see.

YES !!!!

That was it. he's sending me a new one. $15, that's it.

I am SOOOO glad.

I can continue to use it until I get the new one then exchange them and send him the old one.

He said the one side "might" be "a touch" louder "if at all" but won't hurt it as long as I'm not trying to play at concert levels.

Thanks for your help all....

James007