Quest bass driver life

I have had my Quests for over 10 years and replaced the panels about 3 years ago.

There is naturally a lot of conversation on the forum about the life of panels but when does the performance of the bass driver start to deteriorate and what are the options for replacements

Does anyone have any experience of this.

Everything changes with age. But big drivers like that should have a life span measured in decades.

Well you should look at the surrounds first, They should be tight with no holes. If you are getting buzz or distortion, its time to replace. ML has some IIRC , They are old Eminence drivers. There are a few here that have up graded the drivers with after market.

Hi Neil,

I owned a pair of original Quests for over 15 years... (and yes, I also replaced the panels once!).

I only have anecdotal evidence to relay to you as I too noticed that the drivers didn't give me the same "love" as they did so many years ago... It happened over the years so gradually that I really didn't notice the change until I first heard the Vantages

I was not necessarily in the market to upgrade, but my dealer (Rich Favia, Longplayer Stereo) offered me a wonderful trade (and it saved me from messing around with driver replacement). Hearing the difference in the detail between the two speakers made the decision much easier.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but that's how I dealt with the issue! :rocker:

Best regards,

Marc

MCMD; I was wondering when you traded in your ML quests to Rich Favia at longplayer goshen? I have known Rich for about 18 years and purchased a pair of ML Quests used from him, he said it was a trade in and it has oak side panels instead of black and he said the panels were new. I was wondering if I have your old pair? They sound great ! BTW, Rich has closed his goshen store and is in Maine under the longplayer name. You can see a picture of my speakers by clicking maxspl public profile and threads first started.

Hi Maxspl,

It's very possible they're my "old" pair . I upgraded to Vantages about this time last year. Yes, Rich did say he was going to order new panels for them....

I loved my original Quests and was sorry to see them go but (assuming they're my old pair) it sounds like they've gone to a good home...

I've known Rich in excess of 20 years and first knew him from the old Franklin Lakes Stereo shop. It was there Rich gave me my first "sales" job, my father bought M&K separates and I started my love affair with audio. Rich's been a good friend and I wish him well.

mcmd said:

Hi Maxspl,

It's very possible they're my "old" pair . I upgraded to Vantages about this time last year. Yes, Rich did say he was going to order new panels for them....

I loved my original Quests and was sorry to see them go but (assuming they're my old pair) it sounds like they've gone to a good home...

I've known Rich in excess of 20 years and first knew him from the old Franklin Lakes Stereo shop. It was there Rich gave me my first "sales" job, my father bought M&K separates and I started my love affair with audio. Rich's been a good friend and I wish him well.

Click to expand...

Yeah, probably are I didnt know Rich had a store in Franklin lakes. I assume this is NJ along route 23? I traded a pair of JSE 1.8 infinite slope speakers. He gave me $300 and I paid 1300 difference. I did hear the vantages at Rich's store before he closed and I see and hear why you upgraded! Compared to my old JSE, the quests are great speakers, as well as the ML line of speakers. If money were no object, I would get the pass labs X250 amp which sounds great. Did you get your Threshold and B&K from Rich? I remember him selling the Threshold at Goshen in the 1990's and were fantastic amps at the time.

Max,

I'm sure that your love for the Quest "sound" is only going to grow with time. Franklin Lakes is actually in Bergen County and this was well before Route 287 was completed.

My father and mother met Rich there (he didn't own the establishment, but he ran it as if he did!) where we were first exposed to Alan Parsons Project's I Robot and Pyramid (guess that's about 1976-1977, wow... ).

I've not heard the Pass amps (but as it's a Nelson Pass design (duh), it's "got to be good"!) I scored my first Threshold amp (S300) and preamp (Fet Nine, which I'm still using as a phono stage for the B&K!) from Rich many many moons ago.

Over time I aquired (2) S500's and used them to bi-amp the Quests... Sounded mighty fine - they were a great match! With the Vantage's powered sub, I'm down to actively using only one...

Well, good luck with your new speakers, Ill take good care of your old Quests, I'll probably have those for 15 years or so until I get the "upgrade bug" and replace those and the equipment with it

Neil,

I apologize for what may be considered a minor thread-jack with Maxspl. So, getting back to the issue at hand, at the risk of stating the obvious, if your Quest bass drivers don't sound "right" to you, you might consider contacting ML directly for options (after your local dealer of course).

Best regards,

Marc

Neil H said:

I have had my Quests for over 10 years and replaced the panels about 3 years ago.

There is naturally a lot of conversation on the forum about the life of panels but when does the performance of the bass driver start to deteriorate and what are the options for replacements

Does anyone have any experience of this.

Click to expand...

Sure, some experience with replacing drivers here

I suggest you follow some of the recommendations for testing I make in these other threads about woofer performance and upgrades:

• Monolith Refresh - Panels and Woofers
• Too Loose bass on Quest Z
• Passive Crossover bypass – Quest / reQuest

But my general recommendation for Quests and Monoliths is that after 10 years, it's time to replace the driver.

The OEM Eminence drivers were OK, but nothing to write home about 10 years ago, and much less so today.

The biggest challenge with a drive swap and retaining the OEM crossover is that the 'adjustments' the crossover did for the OEM driver might not be applicable to the new one. If using external crossovers, this is not a problem.

Depending on your level of expertise and desire to get hardcore with mods, a Quest can make a truly outstanding foundation for a top-flight system.

Hello, I had a pair of JSE 1.8 speakers with 10" woofers. The sound of the bass began to have that "loose sound" as described by others in this thread. I ignored it pretty much until I realized that it was the foam surrounds began to deteriorate. This caused the woofer to move in and out excessively and eventually caused the cone to hit the frame of the speaker when played loud. I am not sure what material is used for the ML drivers, but after replacing the surrounds and gluing new ones the bass immediately was very tight, and the cones never hit the back of the speaker frame either. I bought a set of 4 foam surrounds on ebay for $35 and was worth the money before I traded them in for quests, just my 2 cents