terlcartman
Member
I ended up buying a focus C18. Didn’t want to be down for months.
Theater ESL Panel crackle at high volume
- Thread starter terlcartman
- Start date
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What do you think about the comparison? I upgraded from a theater i to the C18. I'm sure glad I did. The biggest improvement for me was the clarity of vocals. My old theater i had nothing really wrong with it too. I suspect the panel was probably worn out, but no bad sounds like you had. I wish I'd bought the C18 much earlier.
Russr
Well-known member
Sorry to bug you - was wondering if you spoke to ML about "bespoke" reconditioning of Theater panels if you send them in and are will to wait?
Thanks!
Russ
terlcartman
Member
Nope, they didn’t suggest it was an option but I never asked either. I ended up getting a focus.
terlcartman
Member
Sorry for the delay in getting back on your question but I wanted to give the focus some time to break in. It is definitely better, clearer and more articulate, but I would not say it was miles better than the Theater. I have since also upgraded my amplifier and the two combined are much better than the previous combination.
Same here. I'd say the upgrade from theater to focus was one step up and then the amp change took it up another equal notch. Vocals are where I really notice the difference. I wonder how much the comb filtering you get with the open back on the theater was affecting that. I never tried putting a treatment behind it.
Russr
Well-known member
Anyone tried the Theater /(i), Stage and C18? I started off with a Cinema, then got a used Theater (which needs new tweeters AND panel... I think), and am now sporting a used Stage, which I quite like. How does the C18 compare?
If you look back at my posts, and terlcartman's, youll see thats what we were talking about. I had a theater i and sold that, bought a new Focus (c18). To me its quite a bit better and was worth the cost, but I did that back before the big price hike. There have been 2 since I bought mine. I only paid about $3000 for mine and its listed at $4899.99 now. The main thing I notice is that voices are much more clear now. With the theater I was having trouble understanding speech. I thought my ears were shot. With this new speaker those days are far gone. Later on I upgraded to a better amp for it too and that helped a lot too.
Yep, this is exactly why I've been preaching to any dipole center channel owner to add absorption behind the center speaker.
Proper positioning is also critical, I see system pictures that make me cringe. An ESL center is even more placement sensitive than a dynamic speaker center.
One of the major positives for the C18 Focus is how much easier it is to properly place and achieve good results. Much of that is due to it being a monopole design.
It leaves me wondering why ML doesn't make all of their speakers monopole. Even the C34a has an open back. Why do they do that? Is it a form over function thing, where how it looks is more important?
