robin-hobart
New member
Before Xmas I bought a pair of Ascent speakers from our local auction house. I understand they were about 10-12 years old & the third model down from the top of range at the time. It was the first pair of MLs I have seen here in Tasmania!
Talk about a pig-in-a-poke gamble. The woofers didn't match - one was the later aluminium cone version - and the older paper woofer wasn't even in the cabinet - it was in a box.
I soon discovered both woofers were blown - well and truly beyond repair. Which was a worry - the term 'well cared for' clearly didn't apply. But the panels seemed to be fine (relief) and by feeding the HF to the panels from one amp and the bass to separate woofers in a pair of bi-wireable Whatmough (Australian-made) speakers, I was able to get a bit of an idea of the sound potential. Which was very promising.
A pair of replacement ML woofers turned out to be moderately expensive down here in the deep South (~ $550) and would take up to 3 months - not a particularly attractive option as I might have been sending good money after bad. But my local speaker repair expert suggested a pair of Scan-speak 26W4534G00 10" woofers; they model very closely to the originals (Vifa M26WO-06-04) and were dead-set drop-in replacements - even down to the screw hole separation. Cost for two delivered to Tasmania was $280 and took 6 weeks.
And the result is wonderful. These old MLs are easily the nicest speaker I have auditioned in my home (50 pairs over the past 5 years!), owe me about 10% of their new equivalent replacement cost and I couldn't be more pleased.
My old ears can't detect any sort of integration break between the panels and woofers (as commonly reported) but the crossover point is down about 280hz so this may be significant.
Second-hand can offer exceptional value - if you can find good examples of course. Frankly, I was very lucky. But for anyone contemplating using the Scan-speaks as replacements (I gather the Ascent woofers are the same as the SL3) I consider them a great success.
Talk about a pig-in-a-poke gamble. The woofers didn't match - one was the later aluminium cone version - and the older paper woofer wasn't even in the cabinet - it was in a box.
I soon discovered both woofers were blown - well and truly beyond repair. Which was a worry - the term 'well cared for' clearly didn't apply. But the panels seemed to be fine (relief) and by feeding the HF to the panels from one amp and the bass to separate woofers in a pair of bi-wireable Whatmough (Australian-made) speakers, I was able to get a bit of an idea of the sound potential. Which was very promising.
A pair of replacement ML woofers turned out to be moderately expensive down here in the deep South (~ $550) and would take up to 3 months - not a particularly attractive option as I might have been sending good money after bad. But my local speaker repair expert suggested a pair of Scan-speak 26W4534G00 10" woofers; they model very closely to the originals (Vifa M26WO-06-04) and were dead-set drop-in replacements - even down to the screw hole separation. Cost for two delivered to Tasmania was $280 and took 6 weeks.
And the result is wonderful. These old MLs are easily the nicest speaker I have auditioned in my home (50 pairs over the past 5 years!), owe me about 10% of their new equivalent replacement cost and I couldn't be more pleased.
My old ears can't detect any sort of integration break between the panels and woofers (as commonly reported) but the crossover point is down about 280hz so this may be significant.
Second-hand can offer exceptional value - if you can find good examples of course. Frankly, I was very lucky. But for anyone contemplating using the Scan-speaks as replacements (I gather the Ascent woofers are the same as the SL3) I consider them a great success.
