"Popping" problem with Quad ESL (57) (Long, but thorough....)
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| Posted on November 6, 2014 at 08:37:39 | ||
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Posts: 359
Location: Virginia Joined: September 7, 2000 |
Late last year, one of my Quad ESL bass panels (AFAIK) developed a quiet "pop/tick" (more like a 'snap') sound ONCE, only on the first transient of the day, and never made another unruly sound, no matter how loud or soft they were played. If they rested a few hours, it may/may not happen again. It always happened again the next day after an overnight rest. I got to where I could repeatably reproduce the "pop" sound, at the beginning of every day's listening session -- using the same recording (10cc's "I'm Not In Love" the opening kick drum thumps). On that first thump/transient, I heard this pop. Never again, until it rested. This whole issue started happening, to my best recollection, after an aggressive listening session in which my daughter played some HARD rock -- I was there to moderate the levels, but the speakers were driven pretty hard. Only after that session, perhaps a month or two later, did I discover the problem. Well lo and behold, this past Spring I came into some money, and decided to get the bass panels rebuilt -- I had been needing to anyway, but this "pop" thing just drove it to the critical point. The treble panels had been replaced about 3 years ago (from WPK). So I call WPK again and get a quote for bass panels, and just start discussing all things Quad ESL related -- how I'd done all other work myself; refurbing, repainting, wiring, EHT, adio transformers, blah-blah....then I just mentioned the problem I was having. He asked about it and then asked was it just one time on the first transient....and I thought 'By George he's got it!'. Anyway he said something about the glue in the stators not holding the film correctly, etc. I bought the panels, installed, put everything back together -- problem solved! This was this past May. Well, this week the problem has come back. About the same time as last year, which is odd. These new panels haven't been driven hard at all, connected only to a 20-watt amp (the old panels to a 100-watt!!!). The speakers are in a basement that is normally humid, and has a dehumidifier running (when I'm not listening to music). But now the dehumidifier doesn't run, as the basement is very dry, like the fall air -- I'm in Virginia. So the humidity is a lot lower, and the temp is now ~66 F. The basement is not well insulated, and drops to about 60 during the winter. The speaker frames are sort of creaky too -- if you wiggle or twist them they will groan and creak like any old wood. I'm sure the temp and humidity swing affects these. Just a few months ago it was nearly 80 F, with high humidity. The dehumidifier keeps it to around 50 - 60% RH -- it rises to 70% RH if dehumidifier not running during summer. So is the single "pop" caused be dry weather, or has the new panel failed? When the old panels did this, I swapped amps, speaker wires, swapped speakers L & R, swapped audio transformers, swapped EHT's -- and the problem always stayed with the speaker. I haven't done this any yet. And I cannot remember which s/n did it before. Frame noise/buzz? I will call WPK about this -- a warranty issue I suppose, if any -- but I thought I would run it by you guys first and see if anyone else ever heard this first transient "pop" and then no more. Until tomorrow. Thanks for any input!
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| RE: "Popping" problem with Quad ESL (57) (Long, but thorough....), posted on November 6, 2014 at 21:31:41 | |
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Posts: 184
Joined: May 30, 2011 |
Static electricity maybe?
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