Prodigy woofers

[blues]

Two of the woofers have recently failed in my 13 year old Prodigies. One front and one back in the other speaker. I could not find any past discussion of replacement woofers, so I ask for anyone's recommendations of replacement woofers. One thought I have is to replace all four. Your comments please. I will not be able to respond after today until 12/3/13 to any questions. Thanks, blues

 

[roberto]

Hola. You can get the same replacement woofers at the Martin Logan service department. Just give to them a call, and get a quotation for them, or you could find someone that repairs the cone speakers. Many times it is only a faulty solder joint at the coil. Happy listening!

 

[Odysseus]

Hi Blues,

The Prodigy front woofers are around $720 each from Martin Logan. I'd follow Roberto's advice to have them checked out, if they can't be fixed, then the money to get new ones and get your Prodigy's working like new again might be worth it for you.

Thanks!

 

[Tosh]

My educated guess is the Prodigy uses the same 4 Ohm aluminum cone 10 inch as the Ascent for the front woofer, but a cheaper 4 Ohm paper cone 10 inch for the rear. IF! that is the case, then you could use the same Scanspeak Discovery 26W/4534G for both fronts and rears without any problem.

But confirm that the nominal impedance (DC Ohms) for both is 4 Ohms before ordering (as there is also an 8 Ohm version of this woofer available). Also double-check the basket OD of the rear woofer.

So there you go: under $400 for all four woofers and no ML highway robbery...

Madisound snip:

 

[Odysseus]

These are the original specs for the front woofer:

Scan Speak 25w/8567-01

ML part number***D10NK

Description*8 ohm 10" woofer

*

Parts:

*Surround***rubber roll

*Cone****Aluminum

*Former****Aluminum

*Frame material**Cast

*Copper shorting rings

*

Theil-Small parameters:

*Fs****19.7Hz

*Qms****4.6

*Qe****0.35

*Qt****0.32

*BL****9.18 Tm

*Re****5.61 ohm

*Md****41.88 g

*Vas****244 L

*Le****0.62 mH

*Sd****333 sq cm

*

Performance:

*Xmax (linear)***

*Xmax (non linear)**

*

Dimensions:

*Depth from baffle**

*Outside diameter**255mm

*Inside Diameter**227mm

*Mounting holes diameter*5mm

*Hole locations 6places*D246.5mm

*

*

*

Created: *5/30/01

Modified:*

Rev:**0

Created by: *JV

 

[Tosh]

Description*8 ohm 10" woofer

*Outside diameter**255mm

Thanks! Now we're getting somewhere, instead of guessing!

Front woofer is an 8 Ohm woofer. Do you have info on the rear woofer?

This smaller OD of the original woofer is likely going to present a problem as the modern 10 inch (26W) Scanspeaks are 272mm OD, and if the Prodigy baffle is counterbored to flush mount it, it probably won't fit...

 

[Tosh]

This Scanspeak has a 255mm OD and is 8 Ohms, and it will be an OK substitute for the front woofer. Expensive, though, at $232...

 

[Rich]

I think it is worth the effort to get scanspeak woofers from a third party. ML marks up their replacement woofers for a ridiculous amount. You will save more than $1,000 by sourcing your own.

 

[User211]

I think it is worth the effort to get scanspeak woofers from a third party. ML marks up their replacement woofers for a ridiculous amount. You will save more than $1,000 by sourcing your own.

Ah, well, you see Rich, the ML ones have been sprayed with magic ESL compatible fairy dust... worth the extra money.

Loving the spell checker we now seem to have.

 

[Gordon Gray]

I think it is worth the effort to get scanspeak woofers from a third party. ML marks up their replacement woofers for a ridiculous amount. You will save more than $1,000 by sourcing your own.

One must ask why ML Corporate is intentionally trying to alienate themselves from their customer base?

Smart business model.

GG

 

[InterMechanico]

You know, I'd bet that the high ML price has to do with how long they have to stock the woofer before they sell one. Not that I think that's a reasonable price, but if the bought 200 units to be able to service their legacy model, they might never sell half of them. Hence the inflated price. But seriously, buy them somewhere else.lol

 

[Odysseus]

You know, I'd bet that the high ML price has to do with how long they have to stock the woofer before they sell one. Not that I think that's a reasonable price, but if the bought 200 units to be able to service their legacy model, they might never sell half of them. Hence the inflated price. But seriously, buy them somewhere else.lol

That's very possible, as far as I was able to research, Scan Speak doesn't make that exact woofer anymore, it might have been specially made for the Prodigy for all we know and Martin Logan might have bought hundreds or thousands of them back in 1999 or 2000 and they've been stocking them on their shelves for 13 years so they can have them available for their customers. I think most people might be happy with a similar woofer, some people would not accept anything but the original. As far as I'm concerned, the magic of Martin Logan is in the electrostatic panels, so I'd be OK with a similar woofer as long as the specs are close enough. Luckily I was able to fix my woofers, I'm sure they don't sound exactly like the brand new ones since they replaced the voice coils to fix mine, but I'm happy that I didn't have to spend $1,500 for 2 woofers. For the panels, when they stop working, I'd replace them with originals, even if they'll charge me $2-3K... it will be worth it to get these speakers back to new condition.

 

[Rich]

For the panels, when they stop working, I'd replace them with originals, even if they'll charge me $2-3K... it will be worth it to get these speakers back to new condition.

Unfortunately the way ML is going, it may be $2-3k per panel! Has anyone priced Prodigy replacement panels from ML lately? I would certainly be curious.

 

[Odysseus]

I checked recently with ML and they're a little over $2,300 per pair (incl. Shipping). They make them by custom order and they take about a month to get them to you. I'm considering if I should buy a set just to have them ready when mine stop working.

Does anyone know if the panels degrade just by the passing of time? Or only degrade if they're being used? Should I buy them now, before they go up in price or before ML decides not to make them anymore and will they stay in perfect new condition for 5-10 years in their box until I have to use them?

 

[Rich]

I checked recently with ML and they're a little over $2,300 per pair (incl. Shipping).

Good to hear its not as bad as I thought.

 

[blues]

I thank all of you for your comments and wisdom. I did talk to ML about replacement woofers. They told me their new replacement woofers are not the same as the original, and they only sell one type of woofer versus the two different woofers originally installed in my Prodigies. I will check into the third party Scanspeak that Tosh submitted.

Since I have one front and one rear woofer bad (each in different speakers), I would think that it would not be wise to replace just those two because I would expect their performance to be different than the old existing good woofers. Do you think my suspicion is correct?

 

[Tosh]

That depends on exactly which woofers you found to replace them with. If the efficiency were within ~1dB and the woofer specs were suitable for a sealed cabinet, the nature of sealed cabinets in general would be forgiving enough that you would have a hard time telling. But it would drive me insane just suspecting they might be different!

Are the holes for both front and rear woofers counterbored? Can we see pics? That potential mounting issue is what might force you into the more expensive 255mm OD woofers (unless you are handy enough to open up the counterbore to allow a larger basket OD woofer)....

 

[blues]

Tosh, thank you for your help in showing me suitable replacement drivers. I bought two of each and replaced all four drivers. The speakers now sound great. In answer to your question of the counterbores....yes both front and back are counterbored. The new front drivers fit fine. However, the rear driver basket was slightly larger in OD than the ID of the inner cut of the counterbore. Since the cabinet is made of MDF I easily shaved off a few thousandths on that corner with a knife, which took just a couple minutes to do. I am sorry, I did not take any pictures. I may try to do so in the near future. Thanks again.

 

[Tosh]

Glad I could be of help!
Which woofers did you buy?