ML Quest 12" woofer distortion

[maxspl]

Hi, been a while since I posted on this forum, but when I play music with certain bass tones, not necessarily loud, I notice a "dull" rattle coming from the center of my quests 12" woofer. The rattle is "one toned" is the best way I can describe this: meaning the rattle makes the same noise and does not get louder as I raise the volume, so I'm guessing this is not a loose driver issue. But most of the time, I can crank these baby's up and there is no rattle at all. These are the original drivers, and panels were replaced by previous owner. Otherwise they are awesome speakers. Any advice, should I remove the rear cover and see if it is just loose? and if so, whats the best way, I never dealt with ML's before, this is my first pair, as I replaced my JSE infinite slope 1.8 speakers. Thanks for any/ all your ideas.

 

[Bernard]

But most of the time, I can crank these baby's up and there is no rattle at all..

This talk about babies and rattles is just begging for a smartass comment, but I think I'll resist the temptation.

 

[maxspl]

:duh:This talk about babies and rattles is just begging for a smartass comment, but I think I'll resist the temptation.

I get it

 

[JonFo]

Hi, been a while since I posted on this forum, but when I play music with certain bass tones, not necessarily loud, I notice a "dull" rattle coming from the center of my quests 12" woofer. The rattle is "one toned" is the best way I can describe this: meaning the rattle makes the same noise and does not get louder as I raise the volume, so I'm guessing this is not a loose driver issue. But most of the time, I can crank these baby's up and there is no rattle at all. These are the original drivers, and panels were replaced by previous owner. Otherwise they are awesome speakers. Any advice, should I remove the rear cover and see if it is just loose? and if so, whats the best way, I never dealt with ML's before, this is my first pair, as I replaced my JSE infinite slope 1.8 speakers. Thanks for any/ all your ideas.

Hi MaxSPL,

If your Quests are > 12 years old (and I figure they must be or they would be reQuests ) then my advice would be to replace the woofer.

Checking that the rear electronics board is well mounted and has a good air-seal is also a good idea. But my sense is that the driver has seen better days.

Even my 8 year old (at the time) Monolith woofer was distorting and when replaced, was a major upgrade in sound quality.

I have a thread where we go through the process of selecting and installing a 12" driver in a Monolith, your quest should be pretty close in terms of process.

As for driver selection, there was this other thread on that for reQuest which should be applicable.


Here's a quote from my thread on the Monoliths, but responding to a pair of Quest owners.

Adrian, C.A.P, here's another 12" driver that would be a better replacement of the original if keeping original crossover points, the HiVi W12:
http://www.swanspeaker.com/product/htm/view.asp?id=111

The W12 is a Kevlar reinforced paper cone designed for lower extension and works better in a sealed box than the M12 (M12 in a sealed box has a very high F3). In a Quest box, it should go to about 48 or 50 Hz. Good enough to cross over to a sub.

The highs on the W12 are still quite good, definitely well past the 125Hz crossover point of a Quest or the 200Hz point of a reQuest; also, the x-over is only 12 dB / Octave, so the 'woofer' is still putting out substantial volume into the mid-bass.
You’ll need to add Dacron stuffing to the box to bring down effective volume closer to 75 liters for best results.

My experience leads me to recommend drivers that will better match the panel and play clean up to 500Hz than something that will be focused more on the <60Hz extension. The ‘integration’ one hears so much about is really governed by the behavior of the 80 – 400hz range in the woofer.

After all, in most rooms, a speaker sitting 3’ out from either wall, will just never produce decent low (sub 60Hz) bass, so use a sub if you want to shake the ground

 

[C.A.P]

Like Jon Fo said take the back panel off and have a look around. Be very careful if you take it off and play music . DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE BOARD! YOU CAN GET FRIED! If its the driver it self you can still get the Emenence driver from ML. Its about $200.00 If I was going to do that I would look into replacing both as why do one and the other is waiting to go out. If your really adventurous. You can replace the driver with a after market like JonFO said and adjust the internal wires (I have the schematics ) on the X-over board and go active and truley bi amp. ML set the x-over up to do it on most models.

 

[raygunn]

There's no harm in checking the physical driver...

there are lots of reasons to hear a rattle. Why not verify before spending the money?

Have you verified that the driver is held tightly and the bolts are firm?
If so, you can remove the rattling driver and inspect it. The damage may be no more than the coil coming loose from the cone. A fairly easy fix.

Has the woofer surround come unglued in a spot (usually this sounds more like a flutter or a fart). if so, glue it back on!

has the surround degraded and turned to dust ? these can be replaced but it may be more of a PITA than just spending the money and replacing the entire driver.

Has a component in the crossover inside the box come loose and is rattling? In which case, the woofer is perfectly fine! Epoxy the loose component where it is supposted to nest.

Even after you verify the above and you find that the problem is indeed that the woofers are damaged, you have still gained an understanding of how the speaker comes apart and what it looks like inside.

What can I say? I have a DIY mentality.

Good luck.

Hi, been a while since I posted on this forum, but when I play music with certain bass tones, not necessarily loud, I notice a "dull" rattle coming from the center of my quests 12" woofer. The rattle is "one toned" is the best way I can describe this: meaning the rattle makes the same noise and does not get louder as I raise the volume, so I'm guessing this is not a loose driver issue. But most of the time, I can crank these baby's up and there is no rattle at all. These are the original drivers, and panels were replaced by previous owner. Otherwise they are awesome speakers. Any advice, should I remove the rear cover and see if it is just loose? and if so, whats the best way, I never dealt with ML's before, this is my first pair, as I replaced my JSE infinite slope 1.8 speakers. Thanks for any/ all your ideas.

 

[maxspl]

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate the time you put in to reply to my question; I will remove the back cover with the power removed first and examine the woofer first.