ReQuest bad panel or what?

[Shaftish]

Does anyone have an idea what's going on with my panel?
High distortion, then play quite normal.
I hope you can hear it in the video.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Has something possibly come loose inside the panel? One of those clear tuning strips or something? Very strange issue.

 

[Shaftish]

Not that I have seen.
I have vacuumed, showered, swapped place with the other panel, resolder inte connection that looked bad, clean the panel with compressed air.

Nothing have made a difference, the problem followed the panel when I switched places on the panels.

The panel is probably broken but it feels like it wants to "come alive" but it doesn't. And I don't want to change panel and then figure out that it was just this small thing that made it sound like this haha.

 

[Robert D]

If the panels are original and very old, they are most probably shot. Are you the original owner, or did you buy used? If used, check the serial number on the panel to see age. If they are original, then they are probably nearly 25 years old. My Prodigy panels were showing signs and were about 20 years old.

 

[Shaftish]

It is the original panels.
I'm a bit surprised about how it just stopped working. Everywhere I read I see that they slowly drop in sensitivity. My panel is not dead all the time, but most, 99% of the time it is dead.
Then once in awhile it starts to play, then it is dead again.

I can't find anything wrong and it irritates me to a point...

 

[Robert D]

It is the original panels.
I'm a bit surprised about how it just stopped working. Everywhere I read I see that they slowly drop in sensitivity. My panel is not dead all the time, but most, 99% of the time it is dead.
Then once in awhile it starts to play, then it is dead again.

I can't find anything wrong and it irritates me to a point...

Yeah, I understand. That is frustrating. If you can get those 11a speakers for I think you said $5500, I'd just buy those and try to sell your ReQuests. Someone might want them to rebuild or for parts. I don't think it makes sense for you to spend over $4000 on new Request panels. If you lived here in the US, they'd probably be around $2500 max price and that might be worth doing.

Those 11a speakers will probably sound better than the ReQuests. Smaller panels by nearly 25% square inches, but the new panels are microperforated. They have smaller holes and so more membrane is exposed to the air. They are more efficient. Even if you get new Request panels, they won't be the new microperf.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Still a strange issue how it pops back to life, typically when these panels age the coating on the diagraph degrades due to UV and other factors. This leads to uneven/weak sound from one or both panels. But to have the panel spring back to life leads me to think this is a different issue, it sounds like the panel is losing connectivity from something like a poor connection, possibly the wire that's fixed to the diagraph inside the panel or something.

 

[Shaftish]

Still a strange issue how it pops back to life, typically when these panels age the coating on the diagraph degrades due to UV and other factors. This leads to uneven/weak sound from one or both panels. But to have the panel spring back to life leads me to think this is a different issue, it sounds like the panel is losing connectivity from something like a poor connection, possibly the wire that's fixed to the diagraph inside the panel or something.

The panel is most likely to spring to life of I do like this:
Turn on the preamp.
Start a stream.
Turn up the volume to listening level.
Switch on poweramp.

If I'm lucky the speaker can play up to a minute, then start with the behaviour shown in the videos.

What in the name of.. can it be that causes this kind of behaviour?

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

The panel is most likely to spring to life of I do like this:
Turn on the preamp.
Start a stream.
Turn up the volume to listening level.
Switch on poweramp.

If I'm lucky the speaker can play up to a minute, then start with the behaviour shown in the videos.

What in the name of.. can it be that causes this kind of behaviour?

Hard to say exactly what the issue is. Sounds like it's time to get out the volt meter and start pulling panels apart to find the issue.

 

[Shaftish]

I did exactly as I wrote above. To my suprise it have been playing for 40 minutes now. I'm in totall chock haha.
I did nothing different, yesterday you heard how it sounded.
What do I do now haha?

 

[Shaftish]

After one hour it just went silent.
The other speaker works just fine.

 

[Shaftish]

One hour clip. At the end you hear it stop working.

 

[Shaftish]

1.07.20 it dies

 

[Robert D]

Well, another thing is their age. At that age they are degraded. Even though you think they sound good, they don't really when compared to newer. I thought my old Prodigy panels sounded good, until I replaced them with new. Wow, what a difference.

When setting up Audyssey on my receiver, the gain on those speakers had to be turned up as high as it would go to get the correct volume. I think that's +18 or 20. With the new panels it's now at +1.5. I think that's a lot of uneeded stress on your amp

 

[msimanyi]

Logically it's either the panel, the wiring or some component in the crossover. At their age, replacing the panel makes a lot of sense.

If that *doesn't* solve the problem, is there anything in the crossover that is not available for replacement? If so, you may have to go to an external crossover solution. I've read about them in passing, and while they're more work than "everything just works" they also should provide improved audio quality.

So I'd research that too. You might want to email Martin Logan to inquire about parts availability for the crossover components to figure out all your contingencies.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

You should really try to keep all this in one thread, you'll get better responses that way.

To me it still seems like the panel is somehow losing it's connection. Did you ever check the wires with a meter?

 

[Shaftish]

You should really try to keep all this in one thread, you'll get better responses that way.

To me it still seems like the panel is somehow losing it's connection. Did you ever check the wires with a meter

I think so to, but I can't find the place.
Since the problem follows the panel I can rule out everything before the panel. Then it is 4 screw connections and 4 soldering, or am I missing something?

Is it possible that it could be dust? Even though I have done everything to clean them. What happens if there is dust leading currant between mylar and stator? Then there is no more polar switching and no more sound?
When I start playing it might take a while for the dust to react with the static electricity, sometimes it take 1 second, today it took 1 hour.

 

[Shaftish]

If the panel are clicking/buzzing is that a sign of dirt?

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Clicking can be a sign of dirty panels, my Aerius panels were super dirty and started clicking/popping at high volume. But to get results like yours I'd highly doubt it, they'd have to be super nasty.

 

[Shaftish]

Clicking can be a sign of dirty panels, my Aerius panels were super dirty and started clicking/popping at high volume. But to get results like yours I'd highly doubt it, they'd have to be super nasty.

It might be enough with one dirt chip to cause an interference. That was my thought anyhow.
I started the stereo again after some hours. The bad panel sprung to life and played for about 30 minutes it was done heavy clicking/popping during the time of life. Then it suddenly die and the popping stopped.