Cabinet Cracking Near Tweeters

[sdheda]

Has anyone experienced cracks developing in their Sierra cabinets? They seem to be originating from where the screws for the woofers or tweeters go into the cabinet.

I previously had a Sierra-1 that had a crack moving away from one of the tweeter screws. Dave was good enough to replace the cabinet for me. But now I noticed that one of my Sierra Towers also has cracks near the tweeter. I was in the middle of packing them for a move so I forgot to take pictures. They are still packed in their boxes and I don't want to take them out until I contact Ascend about this problem.

I was just curious if I am the only one that has experienced this. I am no wood expert, but I think it may be caused by the bamboo pieces that are glued together splitting apart due to the expansion or movement of the screw or speaker driver. Stupid I know, but this is the second cabinet that this has happened to so I am curious to know why.

BTW, Ascend is a great company, and I still have every intention of upgrading to the RAAL tweeter on my Towers.

[davef]

Hi Sdheda,

I am sorry to hear this, can you please email us some pictures? This is definitely not an issue with the bamboo but I am wondering if you are in an area with very high humidity or is it excessively dry? Seems very odd for this to happen to two of your cabinets now.

[sdheda]

I am in sunny SoCal :cool: In fact I picked up the speakers from your warehouse in San Clemente.

Here are some pictures of two cracks. I was mistaken, the cracks are from the midrange woofer.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-xy_hQzP6P9o/UkOa3Yo-BdI/AAAAAAAACcU/eeVKWQj9_6k/w1223-h917-no/20130925_192231.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2LwRxvv-8G8/UkOa5S5MShI/AAAAAAAACck/OB7AENCXhB4/w1223-h917-no/20130925_192136.jpg

[RicardoJoa]

Large deviation from cold to hot and himidity will definetily cause crack on woods/ veneer. Not sure how that apply to bamboo.
Could your particilar speaker be in a location where it gets alot of air conditioning where it could possibly getting cold air and when you turn off the air con, the surface will expand and get himidity due to the diference of temperature?

[davef]

Hi Sdheda,

That looks more like a surface crack in the finish itself. The black matte finish is a very hard epoxy coating. Either way, please arrange to get the cabinet back to us. Since you are local to us, it makes sense to simply drop it off so we can evaluate the cabinet and have our cabinet maker make repairs. In addition, if you are serious about the RAAL upgrade, now would be the best time since we will have the cabinet(s) :)

We don't know who you are from your forum moniker so please give us a call or send me an email so we can confirm procedures and take care of this for you quickly.

[sdheda]

Dave,
Sorry for the late response. I sent you an email with my contact info and larger pictures. I took the pictures and packed the speakers up so I can't check more closely if it is indeed just the finish cracking or the cabinet. However, these cracks were not present when I first got the speakers. I also always kept the grill on. So I don't know when it started. And from what I recall there are no other places on the speakers with these cracks. It just seems strange that these are my second Sierra speakers that developed cracks around the driver mounts.

RicardoJoa,
The speakers were never placed in direct sunlight or near an A/C.