Punctured Membrane

I just replaced the panels on my Monolith II's about a year ago since they were sounding dreadfully dead at their ripe old age of 20yrs. The improvement was huge but I immediately noticed that they have a static discharge sound coming from both sides (minor but quite noticeable).

That is the least of my worries however, because last week I noticed that one of the panels has been punctured with a small hole (about 1mm wide).

Can this be patched or filled in? I was thinking about filling the hole with clear nail polish. Has anyone out there had to do such a repair? Replacing the panel again is economically unfeasable for me at this point.

Any ideas would be most appreciated.

Regards

Jonathan

The small hole you described should not effect the panel's performance at all. ML even states so in their manuals. DO NOT apply substance in an aromatic solution such as nail polish as that will disintegrate the polymer substrate (plastic) membrane.
your true issue here is the "static discharge" sound. Better experts here may want to comment but there may be a slight chance that material at the aforementioned hole, the tear or whatever, is making contact with the stators.

The first thing to do is vacuum the panels, after they have been off for 24 hours or so.

Thanks guys,

I Appreciate these tips and both of your answers may be correct in some situations but not in mine. Also I mistakenly left out some vital info in my post (see below*)

First- Relating to the discharge sound: They did this immediately with brand new panels on both channels. I have tried vacuuming but it made no diff.

*Second- Relating to the hole. It is a severe issue with respect to sound. Very loud pops and sparks emit from the puncture every 5 seconds or so.

I will forget about the nail polish but am still looking for a way to fill the hole to prevent the sparking.

Thanks

Jonathan

Also: the puncture is extremely small with no frayed edges and does not seem to be making contact with the stators.

If your panels are arcing, Iwould contact ML immediately.If they are only a year old they should replace them.They do have 5 year warranties if you purchased them new ,or have the original receipt.Good luck.

The arcing panel is a worry. Not sure why or how the puncture happened, but my guess is there are underlying issues there - contact ML!

Yes, definitely contact ML.

Also, I'm wondering if there might not be an issue with your ESL step-up circuits. 20+ year old caps in there might be failing and possibly over-driving the stator charge level. That would be something to check (carefully - stator charge is > 3,500v ).

Please post up the results of your contact with MartinLogan...

amey01 said:

The arcing panel is a worry. Not sure why or how the puncture happened, but my guess is there are underlying issues there - contact ML!

Click to expand...

If it's arcing enough then wouldn't that burn a hole in the film? Can a piece a debris lodged between the stator and film cause arcing? Similar to how a bug zapper works?

Just pondering.