This is my maiden post over here on Audio Circle. (I usually post over on AudioAsylum.) And I'm a bit apologetic
about posting something even slightly negative, because I love my RM-2's. However, this was such a strange experience that I was wondering if anyone here could explain it.
I got by RM-2's almost exactly two years ago, directly from Big B, who did me the honor of coming over to my house to show me the fine art of putty pinching (in addition to setting them up). So for the first year, my experience was similar to that of many other posters here, i.e., the RM-2's just continued to sound better and better. But then last November, one of them developed a kazoo type of distortion in the midrange. And this would only show up at certain times - most of the time, the speaker still sounded great, with no problems. But every once in a while (maybe every two or three days), that distortion would appear, sometimes right at the beginning of the listening session, sometimes not for a couple of hours. It was very frustrating because it was so inconsistent. And BTW, I know it was the speaker and not the electronics, because I reversed the cables and the same speaker continued to exhibit the symptom.
So in late December last year, I called up Brian, and told him my problem. "Bring 'em on down" was his reply. When I arrived, Brian was not there, but a couple of his technicians were there. One of them hooked up the speaker and actually heard the distortion I was describing. Unfortunately, by the time Brian arrived back, the symptoms had disappeared, and they couldn't get it to distort. After a week, Brian called me back and explained they could not get the problem to appear again. He did replace some parts (for free!) and I came back and brought the RM-2's back home. Voila, they sounded fine. . . for three days. Then the old symptoms reared their ugly heads again.
I was stumped - I decided to hold on to the speakers until the problem became more consistent. But it never did. . . January, February. . . May, June. I was on pins and needles, not knowing when that distortion would re-appear. Then, in July, the distortion vanished for good, and once more, the speakers sound great - and continue to do so to this day.
So my question is, does anyone have an explanation for this?
