Monolith III panel

I am looking at replacing the panels on our Monoliths as well as the woofers and implementing an active crossover.

I was speaking to the local importer today - replacement cost will be $2700 Australian. I tried to ascertain the age of the panels they have in stock as I understand that the replacement panels are different from the original. This was queried by the importer who stated that the replacement panel was the same as the original.

Jon, Cherian, anyone else- is this the case? I had gained the impression that there had been a change in the deposition process for the membrane and the advent of Clearspar.... Was this applied to Monolith replacement panels or only to the speakers developed after the Monolith?

As you can well imagine I would like to obtain a reasonably recent production panel. The importer was unable to supply me with the serial numbers of the panels over the phone and said he would contact Martin Logan re the panels he has in stock.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

The replacement panels I got in ’06 look like originals (black spars and all), but are fabricated using current manufacturing techniques and products. Better adhesives, the improved mylar (same as used in all current production panels), etc.

The serial numbers for replacement panels are clearly marked on the boxes they come in, so not sure why they need to call anyone. Just read it off the box. Worse case, open the box and read the serials.

The serial number tells you all you need to know about when it was made.


But $2,700? Man, unless AUS has stiff import duties, that’s quite a rip-off. Will the importer travel out to your location and personally change out the panels? For that kind of money, I’d want dinner too

Unless it’s been sitting around for more than two years, it should be fine.

Thanks Jon - that is very clear.

We are blessed with a single importer - a little competition would not go astray and I am sure ML would shift more product in Australia.

Kevin

kwr said:

We are blessed with a single importer

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Isn't that always the case? i.e. there is a single importer/distributor who distributes the product to the retailers.

The importer is also the only real retail presence for ML as well - competition is an issue. I am sure it is not easy to make a buck out of high end audio equipment but the pricing for ML here has always been a bit rich.

Kevin

Hey it's 2000$ for Quest panels in Canada and I live only about 10 hours from the nearest boarder!!! Some of the ML distributors are rip off artists no doubt! The same distributor was going to sell them to me last year for 1100$ then all of a sudden a 90% increase happened and they blame it on Martin Logan and the economy!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has got to be hurting ML for sure! I have put on hold my purchase because of this stupidity! Good thing they still sound excellent but are close to 10 years old.