Motion 35XT User Manual

user’s manual

2

The lightning bolt flash with arrowhead
symbol, within an equilateral triangle,

is intended to alert the user to the pres­ence of potentially “dangerous voltage” within the
product’s enclosure that may be sufficient to consti­tute a risk of electric shock.

In accordance with the European Union
WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic

Equipment) directive effective August 13,
2005, we would like to notify you that this product
may contain regulated materials which upon dispos­al, according to the WEEE directive, require special
reuse and recycling processing. For this reason Martin
Logan has arranged with our distributors in European
Union member nations to collect and recycle this prod­uct at no cost to you.

To find your local distributor please contact the
dealer from whom you purchased this product, email
[e-mail] or visit the distributor locator at
www.martinlogan.com.

Please note, only this product itself falls under the
WEEE directive. When disposing of packaging and
other related shipping materials we encourage you to
recycle these items through the normal channels.

The exclamation point within an equi­lateral triangle is intended to alert the

user to the presence of important oper­ating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the
literature accompanying the appliance.

WARNING!

• Refer servicing to a qualified

technician.

• To prevent fire or shock hazard,

do not expose this module to moisture.

• Turn amplifier off should any abnormal

conditions occur.

• Do not drive speaker beyond its rated power.

Connection ............................ 4

Jumper Clips .......................4

Single Wire Connection ...............5

Bi-wire Connection ...................5

Passive Bi-amplification ................5

Active Bi-amplification .................6

Installation ............................. 7

Break In ..........................7

Installing On A Flat Surface .............7

Frequently Asked Questions ............... 7

Troubleshooting ........................ 8

Contacting Customer Service .............8

General Information ..................... 8

Warranty Information .................8

Serial Number ......................8

Service ..........................8

Specifications .......................... 9

Dimensional Drawings ................. 10

Serial Number:_____________________________

Record your serial number here for easy reference.
You will need this information when filling out your
warranty registration. The serial number is located
near the binding posts and on the product carton.

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x2x4

4

ConneCtion

WARNING! Turn your amplifier
off before making or breaking any
signal connections!

Use the best speaker cables you can. The length
and type of speaker cable used in your system will
have an audible effect. Under no circumstance
should a wire of gauge higher (thinner) than #16
be used. In general, the longer the length used,
the greater the necessity of a lower gauge, and
the lower the gauge, the better the sound, with
diminishing returns setting in around #8 to #12.

A variety of cables are available whose manufactur­ers claim better performance than standard heavy
gauge wire. We have verified this in many cases,
and the improvements available are often more
noticeable than the differences between wires of dif­ferent gauge. The effects of cables may be masked
if equipment is not of the highest quality.

Connections are done at the signal input section
on the rear electronics panel of the speaker. Use
spade connectors for optimum contact and ease
of installation. Hand tighten the binding posts, but
do not overtighten—do not use a tool to tighten the
binding posts.

Be consistent when connecting the speaker cables
to the signal input terminals. Take care to assign
the same color cable lead to the (+) terminal on
both the left and right channel speakers. If bass is
nonexistent and you cannot discern a tight, coher­ent image, you may need to reverse the (+) and
(–) leads on one speaker to bring the system into
proper polarity.

JUMPER CLIPS

In some countries federal law prohibits
MartinLogan from supplying jumper clips. If none
are found installed under your speakers binding
posts, please refer to ‘Bi-Wire Connection’ for con­nection instructions.

Fig. 1: Single-wire connection. One channel shown.

Fig. 2: Bi-wire connection. One channel shown.

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SINGLE WIRE CONNECTION

Please take note of the jumper clips installed
under the binding posts. These clips attach the
high-frequency and low-frequency sections of the
crossover together. Leaving these in place, con­nect the (+) wire from your amplifier to either red
(+)binding post and the (–) wire from your ampli­fier to either black (–) binding post (Fig. 1).

WARNING! Only after jumper
clips are removed may you connect
individual runs of speaker cable
from your amplifiers to the high-fre­quency and low-frequency signal input binding
posts. Damage will occur to your amplifiers if
the jumper clips are not removed.

BI-WIRE CONNECTION

This connection method replaces the jumper clips
installed under the binding posts with individual runs
of speaker wire from your amplifier. This doubles
the signal carrying conductors from the amplifier to

the speaker, thus direct-coupling each portion of the
crossover to the amplifier.

To bi-wire you must first loosen the binding posts
and remove the jumper clips. Connect one set of
wires to the upper set of binding posts which con­nect to the high-frequency drivers. Then connect
a second set of wires to the lower binding posts
which connect to the low-frequency drivers. Next,
connect both sets of wires to the appropriate termi­nals on your amplifier. Please take care to connect
both (+) wires to the (+) amplifier terminals and both
(–) wires to the (–) amplifier terminals. This is known
as a parallel connection (Fig. 2).

PASSIVE BI-AMPLIFICATION

For those that desire ultimate performance, these
speakers may be passively bi-amplified using the
existing internal passive crossover elements.

This method takes the bi-wiring concept one step
further. You will have a dedicated channel of

Fig. 3: Horizontal bi-amplification connection.
One channel shown.

Fig. 4: Vertical bi-amplification connection.
One channel shown.

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amplification directly connected to the high- and
low-frequency sections of the crossover. There are
two different methods for bi-amping with two stereo
amplifiers. The first and most common is referred
to as Horizontal Bi-amping. The second method is
referred to as Vertical Bi-amping. With either meth­od you may use two stereo amplifiers or four mono
amplifiers, or two mono amplifiers and one stereo
amplifier. Get the idea? With either form of passive
bi-amplification, your preamplifier must have dual
outputs. If your preamplifier is not so equipped, you
must either purchase or construct a “Y” adapter.

Horizontal Passive Bi-Amplification

Horizontal bi-amping allows you to use two differ­ent types, models or brands of amplifiers (i.e. tubes
on top, transistor on the bottom). However, we
recommend that you use two identical amplifiers
(i.e. same brand and model). If you must use two
different amplifiers, it is essential that they have the
same gain or that one of the two have adjustable
gain so that you can match their gain character­istics. If the amplifiers of choice do not have the
same gain characteristics, then a sonic imbalance
will occur. With horizontal bi-amping, one ampli­fier drives the high-frequency section of the speaker
while the second amplifier drives the low-frequency
section. To horizontally bi-amp your speakers you
must loosen the binding posts and remove the
jumper clips. Connect the low-frequency amplifier

to the lower set of binding posts of both speakers.
Connect the high-frequency amplifier to the upper
set of binding posts. Next, connect the left and
right preamplifier outputs to the appropriate left
and right inputs of both amplifiers (Fig. 3).

Vertical Passive Bi-Amplification

The very nature of vertical bi-amping dictates that
both amplifiers be identical. With vertical bi-amp­ing, each of the stereo amplifiers is dedicated to
one speaker. For instance, the left channel of each
amplifier drives the low-frequency section while the
right channel drives the high-frequency section. To
vertically bi-amp your speakers you must loosen the
binding posts and remove the jumper clips from
both speakers. Starting with one speaker, connect
the right channel to the lower binding posts and
the left channel to the upper binding posts. Repeat
the same procedure for the other speaker. Connect
the left preamplifier outputs to both inputs of the left
channel amplifier and the right preamplifier outputs
to both inputs of the right channel amplifier (Fig.

4).

ACTIVE BI-AMPLIFICATION

We do not recommend active bi-amplification.
The internal crossover can not be bypassed. This
connection method seriously degrades perfor­mance.