That makes trouble shooting taller call. An amp expert needed.
Okay. Mars system though can be engaged and disengaged. If there's a simpler thing like some switch which turns on and off the circuit it may be doable. But either way it will be done at leisure.
MARS system details: Now tell me if its ACTIVE or PASSIVE??
Now for the "something extra" and those dual voicecoils. This speaker is the first commercial implementation of the "M.A.R.S." system. The "M" is for Charles McShane, formerly a designer for Acoustic Research in the AR3 glory days. The "A.R.S." is for "ambient recovery system." This is a purely mechanical implementation of the concept of interaural crosstalk cancellation. Most people will be familiar with Carver's electronic implementation called "Sonic Holography." The basic idea is this: we use both timing AND loudness cues to locate sounds. This works fine down to about 800hz, where wavelengths become longer than the distance between our two ears. At this point we begin relying ever more on loudness differentiation, since we are no longer able to "parse" the wavelengths. This is why people claim that bass is non-directional or monophonic. All would be well in a single-subwoofer world EXCEPT: microphones ain't ears! Pure stereo miking is reliant upon a rich blend of uncorrelated bass signals. In order to reproduce this with two channels we need a strong separation of left and right channels. What any of these "interaural crosstalk cancellation" systems do is add a L-R signal to the right channel and a R-L signal to the left channel. Carver does this electronically, with a bit of time delay just to muck up the signal even more. The M.A.R.S. system does this by feeding these L-R and R-L signals to the second voice coil of the midrange drivers and woofers below 800hz. This requires a minimum of crossover magic and a speakercable that runs between the left and right speaker. Disconnect the cable and you completely defeat this feature.
How does it sound? First, here is the speaker with the M.A.R.S. feature disconnected. This is a well-, if somewhat warmly-, balanced speaker which favors no particular frequency from the lowest to highest octave. I currently use a Golden Tube Audio SE40 amp, a 40wpc single ended pentode, that lacks sufficient bass control for these speakers, but still plays at symphonic levels down into the mid-20hz range. Well recorded piano, cello and voices are reproduced seamlessly, with inaudible crossover points, at least as far as bass room nodes allow. The high frequency balance could be described as "natural" vs. "hi fi," but this could be due to my amp's soft top end.
Without the M.A.R.S. system engaged they image very well but, despite their time- and phase-coherent design, do not match the best direct-radiating mini-monitors. There are time when they should, but do not, "disappear." I think this can be attributed to two design compromises made to reach the price point: the cabinets are not particularly rigid and the continued presence of front baffle diffractions. The large size panels and rear panel (screwed on) resonate freely. I plan at some point to modify these speakers by lining the cabinet with the same anti-resonant borosilicate paste used in Totem speakers, adding spikes, and I will experiment with anti-diffraction felt or hard-rubber around the tweeter on the front panel. While these measures should help I think I will still come a bit short of the best imaging direct-radiator speakers (Dunlavy, Thiel, Avalon).
Connect the M.A.R.S., with a simply-miked recording, and the world changes. The depth and width of the sound stage increases by several orders of magnitude. Most symphony orchestras will play with the string basses to the listener's right. The very best imaging speakers, including planars and line-sources, will place these just outside and slightly behind the right speaker. With M.A.R.S. the Studio V's place these outside of and behind the listening room! (the "!" is justified here, I think.) I am talking about perceived distances of 5-to-10 feet to the right of the right speaker, and 10+ feet behind the right speaker. The amazing thing is that there is no -- none, zero, zilch -- price to pay for this. Crappy multi-miked recordings congest in between the speakers just like they always do. Big images sound big, but without the six foot wide solo guitars you often get with planar speakers like Magnaplanars. Combined with the dynamic felicities of the transmission line bass you can hear the wavefront of a bass drum as it powers towards the microphones and beyond into the hall. Amazingly, these speakers seem to energize the room more like good dipoles than forward-firing dynamic speakers, moving air rather than just powering the room modes into resonance. Ultimate bass? No, no 8" driver will do that, but deeper than any planar while retaining their extraordinary pitch definition: this lover for orchestral power music sees no need for a subwoofer in any normal sized room.
This may help........
m.a.r.s.® CONNECTION:
The m.a.r.s.® technology requires a two-conductor interconnect between the two loudspeakers. In order to maintain proper polarity Fried has supplied you with a twenty (20) foot cable for this purpose. The two-bladed plug on each end of the cable can only be inserted one way. If you wish to use a different cable, it is necessary to solder the plugs on the two ends so that the conductors are, in effect, crossed. In other words, one conductor should be wired to the larger blade on one end and the smaller blade on the other, and vice versa with the other conductor.
NON-m.a.r.s.® OPERATION:
Your A/6 loudspeakers may also be used in a non-m.a.r.s.® mode. Included with each loudspeaker is a short jumper cable that should be attached from the m.a.r.s.® socket to the negative (black) binding post to operate in the non-m.a.r.s.® mode. One may completely remove the knurled cap of the black binding post and place the ring connector of the jumper on the post. After replacing the cap, you are ready to conveniently switch between m.a.r.s.® and non-m.a.r.s.® modes by either using the m.a.r.s.® cable or the non-m.a.r.s.® jumpers.
m.a.r.s.® Technology - The A/6 incorporates the acclaimed monitor ambience recovery system, m.a.r.s.®. This well-received method of creating a complete stereo image and expanding the sound stage helps the A/6 in the creation of the most realistic playback possible. Unlike earlier attempts at image expansion and ambience creation, m.a.r.s.® is not an active or additive manipulation of the source material. In a m.a.r.s.® system a differential signal is passively filtered and then sent to the opposite speaker, using information available in the source material to recover a sense of the place in which it was recorded. Since the ambient information is sent to dedicated voice coils on the mid-bass driver in the opposite speaker instead of separate drivers, the image in a m.a.r.s.® system is not position sensitive. One is not forced to sit in the sweet spot to hear the benefits.
