Humidity and Stat Panels

[amey01]

Hi there,

We all know that humidity shortens the life of electrostatic panels. How is this? Does this only apply when listening/using the speakers (ie. while the speaker are being energised) or all the time.

I'm over in Australia, so we get plenty of hot, steamy days. Should I leave my listening room air conditioner on on these days (while i'm out at work) or is this a futile waste of money?

 

[aliveatfive]

The power supply on ML electrostats since 1993 has been "signal sensing." They don't energize the panel if no music is playing. You do not have to take drastic action to preserve your Logans.

 

[Robin]

Humidity vs ML electrostatic pannels...

Hi there,

We all know that humidity shortens the life of electrostatic panels. How is this? Does this only apply when listening/using the speakers (ie. while the speaker are being energised) or all the time.

I'm over in Australia, so we get plenty of hot, steamy days. Should I leave my listening room air conditioner on on these days (while i'm out at work) or is this a futile waste of money?

amey01,

IMHO, I think, leaving the listening room air conditioner on, while you are at work, is not necessary. For the simple reason, ML states, 'ML electrostatic pannels can withstand humidity.' Mylar is very durable stuff, as long as, running water is not applied to the pannels during use, ML's electrostatic pannels will continue to perform as expected...

Cheers

-Robin

 

[roberto]

amey01,

IMHO, I think, leaving the listening room air conditioner on, while you are at work, is not necessary. For the simple reason, ML states, 'ML electrostatic pannels can withstand humidity.' Mylar is very durable stuff, as long as, running water is not applied to the pannels during use, ML's electrostatic pannels will continue to perform as expected...

Cheers

-Robin

Hola... with all respect I have to say that humidity does affect the performace of the electrostatic panel. ML built a special chamber where they put the stat panels and change dramatic the humidity and the temperature. The coated used about then years ago only last half a day. The new addhesive coated did not brake. This kind of adhesive is at electron adhesive level. The university of Kaneas developed this adhesive and won a mention. The bad news is they still brake once and then. You can say is due to humidity, other cause can be weather, or the A.C. line fluctuation. Still, not even the factory knows why. I say to my customers that ML is like a good car..but you have give service as a car. You have to change tires, oil, suspension, motor, ect. Same in ML...you have to service ML. ML warranty is for 5 years. You don´t find this kind of warranty in many high end goods. But, ML team is always under research and developing new materials and new adhesives for the coat, making the product more reliable. All I can say is, all speakers fails once or another time. If you keep ML cleaning the panels, they will last almost for ever. Hope this can help...happy listening,
Pura vida,
Roberto.

 

[georgehifi]

The power supply on ML electrostats since 1993 has been "signal sensing." They don't energize the panel if no music is playing. You do not have to take drastic action to preserve your Logans.

I have a pair of Monolith III much later than 1993 (2000) I think, and I've measured with my electrostatic volt meter 5kv on the panels after 24hrs of no music playing, absolutly no "signal sensing" on these, just do'nt plug them in on humid days, I've measued at 60% humidity full charge of over 5kv, at 68% still over 5kv, but at 75% it drops to 3 to 3.5kv. So jut leave them unpluged from the mains, it only takes a few minutes to come back up to full charge when the mains is applied, and you won't attract dust to the pannels either when unpluged, which is a good thing.

Cheers George from Sydney Australia