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Jonathan,
Hey man, have you gotten my recent email and PM? I'd love to hear a response. I've been looking into that DBX speaker processor that you mentioned, and it's nice. It can be had for quite a reasonable price for what it does. DBX also makes what they call a PA processor that seems to do a lot of what's listed for your unit, and it's cheaper. Could that unit work for my Quests as an active Xover and provide the right EQ, or is that a bad idea? What advantages do I gain by going with the more expensive unit?
Adrian, sorry, yes I have received the latest and read the post in the tweaks as well, It’s on my list to respond to. But since it deserves more than a few minutes thought and typing, I leave it for a free weekend, like today
So look for replies on that topic in the tweaks (and I’ll copy them in an email as well).
As for the DBX DR 260 vs the PA, for basic duties, they could be interchangeable, the PA has the crossover and delay setting one needs to tweak just right, but the 260 has more EQ’s, greater options, and I believe finer grained control of certain settings, don’t recall the details. The 260 also has the PC control, which I love, as I can tweak from the listening position. The PA is all cryptic front panel stuff.
Although Ted Betley seems to have had good results on his Monoliths with the PA:
http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showpost.php?p=17738&postcount=7
I agree that the early Monoliths don't have that sleek sexy look that the later ones have. However, I would be incredibly lucky to ever get these prototypes home, without a doubt. John tells me that there is experimental technology inside that makes this pair unique, and Martin Logan hasn't included all of this in other Monoliths.
‘Experimental Technology inside”, not sure what could better than what they wound up using in the production runs, as there is not a whole lot inside a Monolith (as the crossovers are externalized). About the only ‘upgrade’ I could imagine is a better quality, cost-no-object ESL transformer (as it’s in the signal path). Otherwise the rest is just the 120v to 3500v diaphragm polarization board.
So if the prototype has a special ESL transformer, I’d love to know model #’s etc. to do a bit of research, as that’s going to be my next hot-rod tweak to my Monoliths and SL3XC units.
As noted, since these are in the signal paths, a modern, cost-no-object transformer might be better than the value-engineered selection for production. But don’t get me wrong, the factory one is pretty darn good.
I wouldn't turn my nose up at the ported woofer. These Monoliths have low end extension and power that makes the floor ripple and shake like nothing I've heard to date, and I always get sent home to my Quests with my tail tucked between my legs. (In my best Han Solo voice...She may not look like much, kid, but she's got it where it counts!!) John suspects that the ported and larger woofer cabinet give it advantages over the Quest's smaller cabinet, even though the woofers are the same. Other than that, and what he feels might be about 5% more ease in resolving complex passages, he thinks that the Quests sound very much like the Monoliths, and that the Quests may have been the best speaker value Martin Logan ever marketed. I would definitely enjoy hearing your awesome system with the IB design if I'm ever in the Atlanta area. I'm sure that it would take my impressions of MLs to a whole new level.
Adrian, you are welcome to pop on by whenever you are in the area. I’m sure your metric for what ‘floor shaking bass’ is will change permanently (as might your hearing abilities if we keep it turned up for too long :haha1: )
SleepySurf will be stopping by in a couple of weeks, so we’ll see what his impressions are of the system.
I just have a bias against ported designs because of the uneven frequency response one gets around the port tuning frequencies. That and the box sizes are a bit on the big side. I’d rather throw watts at the problem (says the guy with 15 channels of amplification, the least of which is 200w)
Quest are indeed a great value, I lusted after those before I got the Monoliths. In terms of fitting most rooms, a Quest is a better selection, especially since many systems use a sub to augment the lowest octaves, the variance in bass performance between the quest and Monolith is not as critical. Heck, I gave up on having them even try and do low-bass, as they only go to 60hz in my rig.
The panels on my Quests have never been replaced, and are atleast 12 years old. Do you think that I would gain anything by using a Variac? John's panels are quite new, as they've been replaced recently. However, they don't have all of the recent design improvements that current models enjoy. How sad for us Monolith and Quest owners. John was told by Martin Logan that the voltage control can make for a brighter or darker sound from the panels. I'd love to have that kind of control. The early version of the Quest sported a Variac, I'm told, but there's been no mention of its use with my Quest Zs. Using one can't hurt anything, right?
Regards,
Adrian
On old panels, stepping up the polarization voltage will probably improve things, as it provides the stators a greater potential to work on. A variac is the correct tool for that.
The ‘darker’ sound is when you lower the voltage and the speaker essentially tilts more towards the bass driver, as you are basically applying a volume control to the panel by lowering the polarizing voltage. It also probably skews the FR of the panel, but I’d have to measure to see what the net effect is.
In general if your AC voltage is under 115v, a variac would be a very nice thing to have, as one can push the input by about 10% (e.g if input is 110v, then output is 121v)
Go here to see what all kinds of Variacs there are:
http://variac.com/staco_Variable_Transformer_Map.htm
For ML speakers, a small 2 to 5amp amp version is about all you really need, the current draw from the polarization circuit is minimal (the big Monoliths only draw 25w). But a bigger variac won’t hurt anything.
http://variac.com/staco_variable_transformer_100_.htm and put it on the back panel (requires pulling out the woofer, drilling a hole and hardwiring. Probably only for hard-core tweakers
Or the enclosed external version:
http://variac.com/staco_variable_transformer_3pn221.htm
The large enclosed versions often found on eBay are a great deal (big 10 to 15amp versions for under $100. They might look a bit ragged, but they are generally indestructible.
But this guy's (davidRiddle) store on eBay sells very nice refurbished units, such as this 5 amp version for $150:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170116046106&ih=007&category=73377
