Martin Logan Shower Cleaning PDF

[Nielsen]

Well, you must have made a mistake somewhere, you did check you connected the wires correctly and checked in the bass cavity that nothing came loose in there?
Is the bass working? Does the led light come on?

 

[tomaso]

Greetings!

This is my first message.
Long time Aerius owner (1997) and have similar problems of decline.
The shower story is completely new to me and the whole thing leaves me in dubio. But I am affraid I end up with two options. Take a shower with my panels or purchase new ones.
I reckon a showersession also brings me closer to my set...
I'll bring you a rapport of things!
Cya
Tomaso

 

[Trn335]

Okay, when I saw this I thought 'oh, man, somebody has a few loose screws'. Well, I had to take my SL3's apart today to reposition the panels and add the 'the Martin Logan patented panel stop plates' (now there's a high-tech solution for you). the panel on one speaker had slipped enough that the strain on the panel wires had weakened enough for the front and back wires to immediately come off. If you ever had to re-solder these little buggers back on, well, I feel your pain.

At any rate, the panels were off and I thought, what the heck, let's hit the shower. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? I'd already survived the soldering exercise without giving up and throwing the damn things away and ordering new ones. What's a little water?

So, there weren't as much as fun as a shower with the wife. No surprise there, i guess. It's okay; my expectations very pretty low anyway.

Dried and back together with a light dusting of baby powder (I'm just kidding with that part) I fired them up.

Wow! Are you serious?! I'm completely stunned. Could they have been that dirty to sound that comparatively bad or are they just really happy to be freshly cleaned and feel like singing? Maybe I need to bath with them more often.

Nah, that's a 'once decade thing', don't get used to it, girls. it wasn't that much fun but I thoroughly enjoyed the results.

 

[TrumpetDoug]

Has anyone ever done this with a pair of Ascents? Mine are probably due for this treatment and I was wondering.

Doug - out

 

[dankylee]

Has anyone washed the panels of the ML Clarity? Mine have become so soft that they are bare audible and the woofer is overpowering.

 

[Brian_74]

Any changes for newer speakers like the Vantage

Do the rails come off the same way on something like the Vantage model? I am considering giving mine a bath since they're about 5 years old now and I feel like vaccuming helps, but maybe not as much as it used to. Should one still avoid spraying the back side of the panel?

 

[timw]

Just want to share my recent Model SL3 experience here:
I was having a problem with one of my SL3 panels sounding a bit lower in volume compared to the other. I swapped panels with the other SL3 to make sure the prob was actually with the panel and this confirmed it. I tried vacuming it but it didn't help so I decided to hit it with the garden hose. After washing both sides of the panel and letting it sit to dry all day, I hooked it back up but didn't get any sound from it. I thought i had really messed it up now! Last resort was to let a fan blow on it overnight and try again the next day. Well, lo and behold after re-installing it, it is working and perfectly matched in volume to the other SL3...!
Lesson learned....Be sure to give your panels plenty of time to dry before hooking them back up.(I believe the fan really helped to dry it out well also)
PS: I had initially called ML support about this problem and they also recommended hitting the solder connections w/ a soldering iron where the wires connect to the panel.
A cold solder joint might have also caused this low volume problem.
I could only get to 2 of the 3 wire connections since one of the wires is sandwiched between the 2 perforated panels and I didn't want to pry them apart at all.

Tim

 

[Peter Ward]

My Ascent experience....

1. Remove the 3 screws that remove the cover for the wires that run to the panel, and unfasten the bullet connectors (this was particularly painful)
2. Remove all 5 screws from each side of the panel, plus the 3 each side that remove the wood trim
3. Gently separate the panel from the side cheeks. This includes the black plastic moulding that holds the metal panel each side. In my case it didn't separate easily and needed careful use of small screwdriver to break the seal. I showered the panels while the black plastic moulding remained on. I tried removing it but gentle pulling didn't do it and I didn't see the need to force it
4. Shower with gentle spray
5. Towel dry then use a cool hairdrier and leave 24 hours to dry out
6. Refit by first attaching the panel with 1 screw, then put the other side in with the wood cheek and screw the cheek followed by the panel. Then remove the 1 screw from the other side and repeat.

I did have a fright when one speaker cut out, but it came back after a few minutes and hasn't happened again. I guess there was some residual moisture somewhere.

The result? Leading edges have improved, and detail is better. Not a night-and-day difference but worthwhile for free, and it does make them more involving now there's a little more excitement -- I say this as a Klipsch Forte II owner who enjoys the excitement . I've searched all my life for a speaker that gives me the same feeling as sitting in the middle of an orchestra playing big symphonies, and the Klipsches are like that at times. I'm not sure Ascents are, but I can see their attraction in other ways. Yes, I'm sure a money-no-object speaker would get me closer, but unfortunately money is an object for me...

I hope this helps others to take the plunge with their Ascents. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was, and yet again noted how American speakers are basically very simple in their construction.

Peter

 

[Odysseus]

Prodigy's panels went into the shower yesterday!

My Prodigys have been somewhat dull at the higher frequencies, so yesterday I took a couple of gallons of distilled water and a hand pressure sprayer and went to work. I towel dried, then used a hair dryer in warm mode, then left them outside several hours to dry. Last night I mounted them in place, but didn't connect them. Tonight I'll see what the improvements are, I'll keep you updated. Crossing fingers that this works so I don't have to spend $2,400 on new panels!

 

[dirmae]

Washed my SL3's over the weekend

I've been reading the thread over and over in the past years and this weekend I finally had the guts to go ahead with this. So this afternoon the 48h wait for the stators to dry was over and I reinstalled everything. Man what can I say, the result is beyond my wildest expectation. My speakers are 18 years old and still have the original stators but this procedure brought them back BIG time.

I can recommend this to everyone. It's dead easy to do and really makes a difference.

 

[Tosh]

Update, Odysseus? "No news is good news..."?

 

[polskajay]

HELP. How do I get the rails off my SL3 without breaking them? I hammered them upward, look JUST like the pic in the PDF but they're NOT budging. Thanks, Jay

 

[mark-in-seattle]

On my SL3's the rails are nudged DOWN approx 1" to release hidden locking devices

HELP. How do I get the rails off my SL3 without breaking them? I hammered them upward, look JUST like the pic in the PDF but they're NOT budging. Thanks, Jay

As my title says, to remove the two side rails on my 1997'ish SL3's I had to tap the top end of the rail (top of speaker) down toward the woofer end (5' away). What some posts have not mentioned is that you only have to move the rails down about one inch (or maybe 1.5 inch) in order to release several captivated rail locking devices hidden along the underside of the rail. On two of my rails they released from the locks as soon as they where tapped down the requisite one inch, but two others did not release until I pulled them up manually....YMMV.

Hope that helps.

I removed my rails because the ES panels had migrated down the front of the speaker and hit the floor. I guess a known problem with my vintage SL3's. The downward movement damaged some of the adhesive rubber gasket under the woofer cover panel and a layer that seems to lock the ES panel to the woofer panel curved upper edge and might provide dampening. Wondering what to do with this gasket situation.

Might wash the detached panels very gently and carefully on the front side only as recommended here (Update - washed both sides).

UPDATE -- Indeed, washed both sides of the panels in the shower gently with a mild dish soap solution, then rinsed very thoroughly with clean water. Used my air compressor to blow an air stream over the panels to push the water droplets off to the sides. Did not get too close with the air nozzle. Wanted a light force on the panel surface to move the water, break surface tension not blast it off. Note - my compressor does not use an inline oiler. Some compressors that frequently run air tools inject a thin stream of oil into the airflow to help lubricate the rotary tools. An oil film would obviously NOT be good at all for the panel surface. Just thought I would mention it. Let the panels dry for 3+ days before replacing them in the speaker cabinets.

Panel Anti-Slide Mod
Used my own method to keep the panels from sliding down in the frame. One small hole punched in each lower corner of the curved woofer steel grill cover in an area covered by the wood side rails. Beveled flathead screw thru the hole into the wood frame with a spacer backer. Countersunk the hole in the grill to make sure the small screw head did not protrude much above the grill surface so as to not interfere with the side rails. Seemed to work OK.

Binding Post Threads
Oh, when I went to attach my Kimber speaker cables to the SL3 binding posts it was hard to get two of the wing nuts threaded on properly. For others with the same problem you should know on my vintage SL3's I was able to clean up the threads using a 1/4-28 tap and die. After re-establishing clean threads the nuts went on fine.


Results - Audio Test
Very relieved to report the shower did not kill my SL3's. I think it might have improved the sound a bit; little clearer stage presence(?), but admittedly hard for me to really tell. Will invite my musician friend over to help with a listening test. Used a SEAL CD and also some beautiful choral music with a lot of dynamic range; Lux Aeterna by Lauridsen (Pacific NW composer).

 

[02GF74]

Has anyone tried this on Aerius i - I cannot see any obvious way to remove the electrostatic panel - help!?

 

[02GF74]

For those that have done this, did the degrading occur again and how long before it did?

I'm considering attempting this on a pair of Aerius iI that I'm noticing have lost a bit of top end; can anyone tell me how I get the electrostatic panels off - are the wooden side mouldings all that hold them on, removed by tapping upwards with a rubber mallet?

Also I see that double sided tape holding stuff together, will this need to be replaced?

 

[02GF74]

Panel Anti-Slide Mod
Used my own method to keep the panels from sliding down in the frame. One small hole punched in each lower corner of the curved woofer steel grill cover in an area covered by the wood side rails. Beveled flathead screw thru the hole into the wood frame with a spacer backer. Countersunk the hole in the grill to make sure the small screw head did not protrude much above the grill surface so as to not interfere with the side rails. Seemed to work OK.

good idea, that should work, and be strong enough to stop them sliding down. I've seen a version of screwing a bracket to the base but this is nice as it is hidden away.:rocker:

I wonder why ML never made them like that but relying on sticky tape that will over time be less sticky.

 

[Gaven555]

Has anyone tried this on Aerius i - I cannot see any obvious way to remove the electrostatic panel - help!?

So I just took my Ascents and put them in the shower. The whole speaker, I did not even bother removing the stators. I washed both sides once with shower water and then did a final rinse using DI water. I let them dry inside in the dark for 5 days to ensure that any trapped water had dried. Plugged them in and fired them up a couple days ago and OMG I could not believe the difference! My speakers used arc and it was very noticible at high volumes. They do not arc at all now and the highs are a lot more crisp. I really see no need to disassemble the speeker, just try not the get the woofers wet.

 

[TomDac]

so i just took my ascents and put them in the shower. The whole speaker, i did not even bother removing the stators. I washed both sides once with shower water and then did a final rinse using di water. I let them dry inside in the dark for 5 days to ensure that any trapped water had dried. Plugged them in and fired them up a couple days ago and omg i could not believe the difference! My speakers used arc and it was very noticible at high volumes. They do not arc at all now and the highs are a lot more crisp. I really see no need to disassemble the speeker, just try not the get the woofers wet.

not recommended!!!

 

[C.A.P]

water and electronics

 

[Gordon Gray]

So I just took my Ascents and put them in the shower. The whole speaker, I did not even bother removing the stators.

Good luck. Hope nothing fails in the future.