Martin Logan Shower Cleaning PDF

[18000rpm]

OK, so mine lasted two months. The panels on my Sequels are now officially dead after having come back alive very well (they're still listenable, but at low volumes). I am now back to square one. I still do not want to invest in expensive panels ($2600) on speakers that are 33 years old. I suppose ML has improved the rest of the speaker over the years, from what I have read, so now it's a toss between spending $5000 on a new pair of MLs or switching to Maggies. Your thoughts are welcome, thank you.

Contact Russ at Home

I had him repair mine. I would say they are about 80% the performance of brand new panels, and it cost me a very small fraction of the price.

 

[Technomad]

I’ve just bought a pair of Spires in the UK for just over $3000 - and are a massive upgrade over my 2001Aerius i s. So moving forward a generation or two does seem to make a big difference.

 

[gvera]

OK, so mine lasted two months. The panels on my Sequels are now officially dead after having come back alive very well (they're still listenable, but at low volumes). I am now back to square one. I still do not want to invest in expensive panels ($2600) on speakers that are 33 years old. I suppose ML has improved the rest of the speaker over the years, from what I have read, so now it's a toss between spending $5000 on a new pair of MLs or switching to Maggies. Your thoughts are welcome, thank you.

Maggies or ML is just a personal choice.
I agree with you that spending $2600 in a Sequel is maybe too much.
What about a used ML of the previous generation? A few years old pair of Montis would be around $4000 and it's a great speaker.

 

[Spike]

I agree with you that spending $2600 in a Sequel is maybe too much.

Well, this is a personal preference, having dependencies on your current equipment. Moving to newer models means that you're locked into class-D amplifiers for the bass. The class-D on the bass didn't do it for me. I prefer tubes on my panels and class-A solid-state on the woofers. The rationale, which I've posted here several times, is that the male vocal range goes down to 120Hz, and is covered by the woofers. In my case, I have a class-A amplifier to preserve the underlying tone and presence of male vocal. For this reason, I made a conscious decision to re-panel my 26-year-old ReQuests. In my specific case, $2.5k to restore these speakers to their glory is much better than spending 5x more and still not get it quite right. YMMV...

 

[Robert D]

My new Prodigy panels sound excellent.

 

[gvera]

Well, this is a personal preference, having dependencies on your current equipment. Moving to newer models means that you're locked into class-D amplifiers for the bass. The class-D on the bass didn't do it for me. I prefer tubes on my panels and class-A solid-state on the woofers. The rationale, which I've posted here several times, is that the male vocal range goes down to 120Hz, and is covered by the woofers. In my case, I have a class-A amplifier to preserve the underlying tone and presence of male vocal. For this reason, I made a conscious decision to re-panel my 26-year-old ReQuests. In my specific case, $2.5k to restore these speakers to their glory is much better than spending 5x more and still not get it quite right. YMMV...

I agree, is personal preference.
I have no problem with well implemented class-D amplifiers.
I wonder why you kept the ReQuests and didn't move to a newer Odyssey or Prodigy.

 

[Spike]

I wonder why you kept the ReQuests and didn't move to a newer Odyssey or Prodigy.

I seriously considered the Prodigy, but then got voted down due to...WAF. Her words: "They are too deep and weird looking. They are not elegant."

 

[Robert D]

I seriously considered the Prodigy, but then got voted down due to...WAF. Her words: "They are too deep and weird looking. They are not elegant."

Form over function!

 

[Spike]

Form over function!

Not really a choice in this matter. It's the price of admission when co-existing with a significant other. She's nice enough to indulge with my "toys" so this is the least I can do.

 

[gvera]

It's a pitty you don't like the newer powered MLs. WAF is muuuch higher.

 

[Mwilder]

OK, so mine lasted two months. The panels on my Sequels are now officially dead after having come back alive very well (they're still listenable, but at low volumes). I am now back to square one. I still do not want to invest in expensive panels ($2600) on speakers that are 33 years old. I suppose ML has improved the rest of the speaker over the years, from what I have read, so now it's a toss between spending $5000 on a new pair of MLs or switching to Maggies. Your thoughts are welcome, thank you.

I have owned both Maggies and MLs. Everyone has different values (likes) for sound. Here is my take
ML's bigger sweet spot, faster transients, sharper imaging, woofer to panel not as seamless as Maggie
sound. depending on model may require a better amplifier
Maggies better driver integration, wide, deep sound stage but not as precise imaging, less punch in the bass region
Both very nice speakers, more in common than not. Good luck. I don't think you can wrong with either choice.

 

[Javo]

Well, so I was wrong! My Sequels are NOT dead. Quite the contrary, I invested in a power amplifier, an EMOTIVA XPA-2 Gen 2 which pushes 300w/ch. on 8 ohms, or 400w/ch. on 6 ohms. Before I was using an Adcom 7605 (150w/ch. into 6 ohms) and it didn't move the speakers very much. I think these 33-year-old speakers get lazy when they age. The second shower they got with warmer water was probably unnecessary, and maybe partially desensitized one or both of them. However, I'm a very happy man. These marvelous speakers came a long way from being one dead and the other dull three months ago to being FANTASTIC. The piccolo and other instruments in the Vivaldi wind concertos are breathtaking, and I saved myself a lot of hard-earned money by not replacing the panels altogether, which would have been the easy way out.

 

[Robert D]

Well, so I was wrong! My Sequels are NOT dead. Quite the contrary, I invested in a power amplifier, an EMOTIVA XPA-2 Gen 2 which pushes 300w/ch. on 8 ohms, or 400w/ch. on 6 ohms. Before I was using an Adcom 7605 (150w/ch. into 6 ohms) and it didn't move the speakers very much. I think these 33-year-old speakers get lazy when they age. The second shower they got with warmer water was probably unnecessary, and maybe partially desensitized one or both of them. However, I'm a very happy man. These marvelous speakers came a long way from being one dead and the other dull three months ago to being FANTASTIC. The piccolo and other instruments in the Vivaldi wind concertos are breathtaking, and I saved myself a lot of hard-earned money by not replacing the panels altogether, which would have been the easy way out.

That's great. I was using the old panels on my Prodigy speakers for years. Finally replaced them. Wow, what a difference! If your speakers sound better now, just think how they will sound with new panels. There's no rush though. Save up some cash and buy them later on.

 

[Javo]

That's great. I was using the old panels on my Prodigy speakers for years. Finally replaced them. Wow, what a difference! If your speakers sound better now, just think how they will sound with new panels. There's no rush though. Save up some cash and buy them later on.

Will do, thank you, or maybe I'll sell these and buy me some new ones. After all, I'm only 72 y.o.

 

[Javo]

Thinking it over, I'll never sell these, for many reasons. But I'll save some cash for the new panels.

 

[Robert D]

Thinking it over, I'll never sell these, for many reasons. But I'll save some cash for the new panels.

Getting new panels was like a miracle to me. You'll not be disappointed.

One big thing I discovered was the fact that the volume of old panels is much lower than it should be. Because of that, my amp had to have the gain turned all the way up on the pre amp in order to achieve proper volume level. I believe that was probably pretty stressful on my amp? Putting unneeded stress on the amp. Once I replaced the panels, the gain is now 12 db lower.

 

[Javo]

Getting new panels was like a miracle to me. You'll not be disappointed.

One big thing I discovered was the fact that the volume of old panels is much lower than it should be. Because of that, my amp had to have the gain turned all the way up on the pre amp in order to achieve proper volume level. I believe that was probably pretty stressful on my amp? Putting unneeded stress on the amp. Once I replaced the panels, the gain is now 12 db lower.

I follow you completely. Besides, one of my speakers is slightly louder than the other, something my old Bryston preamp can't seem to correct, so I now know what my next move must be. Thank you for your input.

 

[Javo]

Fast forward four months: I've been very happy with the sound from my Sequels. Until two weeks ago. Now one of the panels has started to go from on to off in about two hours use. I'll turn on my system and both speakers sound marvelous, and then one of the panels will slowly shut down to almost zero over the course of a couple of hours. Its woofer keeps working Ok, but the panel goes almost dead, maybe for a couple of days or more as I try to turn them on. Then, as if by magic, the next time I turn my system on the defective panel works fine, for about two or three hours. It's very frustrating. There is no way I can access the electronics inside, so that is off limits for me. When I take them apart all connections seem to be ok. I'm not an audiophile, not ready to spend thousands of dollars in equipment, and certainly not in the same league as all of the people that write in here, and will remain with my Klipsch towers for backup anyway, but any ideas or help will be deeply appreciated. Cheers to all.

 

[JonFo]

then one of the panels will slowly shut down to almost zero over the course of a couple of hours

That is most likely a diaphragm energizing circuit issue. These things are old, and likely in need of a re-cap (replacing capacitors) due to age.
Luckily, our friend @roberto can take care of that for you, or point you to someone who could help.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Mine starting popping last night basically out of the blue at moderate volumes so I got them pulled apart tonight for the big wash tomorrow. I had both of these totally apart in under 10 minutes, anyone could do this.

Dirty girls, it's a wonder they still sounded good.