Meadowlark Heron i speakers - can anyone share PDF of owner's manual?

[CraigVC]

Hi, I'm new here; this is my first post.

Last week I purchased a used pair of Meadowlark Heron i speakers, that were made in the late 90s. I checked with Meadowlark Audio but unfortunately they don't have an owners manual to share with me. I also checked with the "Wayback Machine" on Archive.org, where I did find an informative product page for Heron i speakers, but no indication of an owner's manual to download.

Perhaps someone here has a scanned PDF or images of the original owners manual or other documentation that came with Heron i speakers, that you'd be willing to share with me?

Thanks,
Craig.

 

[daBugster]

Welcome Craig. Hopefully someone will come through for you soon. I have a pair of HR Shearwaters that I bought about 18 years ago and love to this day. I would consider the Herons if I ever find a pair at a reasonable price. I am sure that you love yours!

 

[prime minister]

Gorgeous speakers. You're a man to be envied.

Is there anything specific you are looking for from the manual?

 

[CraigVC]

Thanks!

For the manual, I generally want to learn everything I can about these speakers. In particular, I would like to get insights into how to use the configurable aspects of these speakers.

For example: the L-M-S adjustable voicing. I did email Pat and he replied that these L-M-S binding posts for the tweeter (of which you choose only one) are different voicings and I should just experiment and decide which one sounds best to me. It would be nice if the manual - or any other available documentation/writing that anyone here could share with me - could provide some indication or guidance as to what the voicing options are intended to sound like, etc. For now, I am using the "M" setting with my speakers (the attached photo shows them initially connected as "S" when I first got them home, but I've moved that to "M" for now).

Also, while none of the accessories for these speakers came with my purchase of them (and they're no longer available to purchase from Meadowlark Audio), I'm interested in learning insights about how the bass port pucks might be used, what they were designed to change in the sound, etc.

For my configuration and room limitations, I have my Heron i speakers positioned up close (within a couple of inches) of an Ikea bookshelf that is filled with LPs (see photo). I realize that having a couple of feet behind rear-ported speakers is more ideal. So I'm curious about whether the bass port pucks could help improve the sound for my configuration, and if there's a DIY solution for me to substitute some material or object into the bass ports to tune them in a more pleasing way for my situation.

In summary, now that I have my Heron i speakers hooked up in a basic way, I would like to learn everything about them and start exploring now to refine and optimize the setup, using knowledge of how they were designed to function.

By the way, I bought these Heron i speakers along with Aria Audio amps and line stage in an incredible package deal, so I'm facing a wonderfully dramatic learning curve, having leaped a long way overnight from my prior modest system of Denon AVR-3801 receiver and ELAC B6 speakers.

 

[Olson_jr]

Did you track down the noisy tube yet?

It's all hooked up!

There is a little bit of what sounds like rustling papers occasionally, when there is nothing playing and all components are on. I suspect it might be a tube(s) that need to be reseated or is possibly needing to be replaced. (We did drive this system 130 miles in the back of our SUV through curvy forest-land highways after we bought it, so some vibrations and bumps in the journey might have caused some issue.)

 

[Pat McGinty]

Here ya go.

 

[CraigVC]

Here ya go.

Thanks! For whatever reason, the PDF that you'd sent to me via email only displayed the images (not the text). But this PDF attached here in the forums also shows the text, so I'm printing this one out and saving it to my computer.

 

[CraigVC]

Did you track down the noisy tube yet?

Nope, haven't had a chance yet. Wife just had surgery on Wednesday, so I'm sleep-deprived from round-the-clock post-surgery care here at home. Not a good state of mind to troubleshoot electronics.

 

[CraigVC]

I also tracked down (thanks to archive.org Wayback Machine) the "Engineering Philosophy" article from the old Meadowlark Audio website, which is very interesting to read and help me better understand/appreciate these Heron i speakers. I've attached a PDF of that article here, for others to reference in the future.