I have just bought two used panels for a Vantage / Vista. The previous owner said one loudspeaker started doing crackling sounds only when playing music, not when idling with the HV on. He replaced them with new panels at the advice of the European representative of ML and that solved his problem.
The panels look absolutely fine to me, i.e. no holes, uneven metallization, tears, dust, hairs, etc. I guess I will need to cobble up my own HV supply and step up transformer for testing while keeping an eye for a very cheap set of ML or other ESL speakers to salvage such parts.
Will the actual voltage and step up transformer be substantially different between Gen 1 and Gen 2? And between different panel sizes?
Bonus question: I understand the Gen 1 panels had an issue with the conductive coating which was maybe just carbon powder rubbed onto the mylar foil and with the foam spacers. Gen 2 should be much more durable with the vacuum deposited coating and the clear spar spacers. I read in some review that the already vacuum coated foil receives an additional coating to seal any tears intruduced by tensile stress during mounting. On the other hand, I have now come across several used Gen 2 systems that seem to have the classic problems of much decreased sensitivity and dull sound. How common is this? Are there any pics or instructions out there on refurbishing Gen 2 panels?
The panels look absolutely fine to me, i.e. no holes, uneven metallization, tears, dust, hairs, etc. I guess I will need to cobble up my own HV supply and step up transformer for testing while keeping an eye for a very cheap set of ML or other ESL speakers to salvage such parts.
Will the actual voltage and step up transformer be substantially different between Gen 1 and Gen 2? And between different panel sizes?
Bonus question: I understand the Gen 1 panels had an issue with the conductive coating which was maybe just carbon powder rubbed onto the mylar foil and with the foam spacers. Gen 2 should be much more durable with the vacuum deposited coating and the clear spar spacers. I read in some review that the already vacuum coated foil receives an additional coating to seal any tears intruduced by tensile stress during mounting. On the other hand, I have now come across several used Gen 2 systems that seem to have the classic problems of much decreased sensitivity and dull sound. How common is this? Are there any pics or instructions out there on refurbishing Gen 2 panels?
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