Rattle in Vista woofer

I've been doing some room eq sweeps and as it cycles through the bass I'm getting a severe rattle from my left woofer. I don't notice a problem with music but clearly something is wrong. Is there a way to take a look? Remove the front panel safely?

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Sounds like you cooked a driver.

Play some material with some deep bass (acoustic bass or similar) to confirm that the "rattle" occurs with low frequency sounds.

I'd say I've done that with the sweep. The question is what I can do about it. The driver seems inaccessible

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You will need to replace the bass driver. Contact ML for options. If they have the same driver and you are OK with price, go for it. You can also research other options. I'd recommend the first. Depending on the age of the speaker and wether you plan to keep for awhile, I'd recommend replacing both drivers to ensure uniformity.

Installation is pretty easy. You'll need to remove the two side rails to access. Simply tap the top down on the top rail or up on the bottom of the rail with a padded hammer and the rails will come off. Next remove the grill in front of the bass driver. remove screws holding the driver to the cabinet, wedge free, remove the two wire clips and repeat for reinstall.

You should get some new double sided tape from ML or a hardware store to replace the tape on the inside of the removed grill if required. I'd have on hand. If you do replace the tape, remove all the previous tape to ensure a good "seal" with the grill and the cabinet.

FWIW, I suspect you had the volume turned up a bit too loud and that was the cause on the problem. And when I owned the SL 3's, I replaced two of them.

Best,

Gordon

PS: Make sure you mark the positive and negative speakers leads if they are not marked.

That's great. I couldn't see how the panel came off. Now I can at least investigate

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Hola. I am going to chime here a little bit. The Vista panels, you do not need to take the side rails apart.
Woofer replacement...l
Tools required: 6” piece of insulated wire stripped at both ends. Small Flathead Screwdriver 5/32” Allen Tool
Note: This procedure requires 2 people.
1 Turn off amp. Unplug the power cord(s). Disconnect all signal cables from the speaker. Prepare a surface with padding and blankets to protect the speaker as you work on it.
2 Inspect the work surface to assure that it is clean and free of debris. Carefully lay the Vista on its side.
3 Remove the front feet from the bottom of the cabinet.
4 Using a 5/32” Allen Tool, remove 2 screws from the stat frame bottom mounting-bracket.
5 Using a 5/32” Allen Tool, remove 2 screws from the stat frame top mounting-bracket.
NOTE: After removing these screws the stat frame is no longer connected to the cabinet. Continue to hold it in place.

Now you can take off the woofer. Usually your problem might be a cable that could touch the woofer´s cone when the cone is moving too much, as when you are feeding a test tone. I do not recommend to you to use test tones, unless you know what are you doing.

Happy listening!

There is also the possibility that the rubber surrounding is getting loose from the chassis.
(like my ML Sequels did).

Good news: It could just be that the noise you're hearing is your amplifier is clipping during those bass sweeps (bit unlikely), or that the woofer is hitting its mechanical stops from being overdriven and making a rattle (bit more likely), but that no actual damage has occurred (hopefully!).
Bad news: Those Vista woofers have a bad reputation, and the noise you describe sounds exactly like a blown woofer.
Let us know?!