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#1
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
I have just acquired a pair of Quad 989 ESL speakers and am delighted
with them. I have however reported to Quad that there is a slight "fizzing" noise emanating from one of them. You have to put your ear close to it to actually hear it. It started to occur during the extremely hot weather we had recently here in the UK and Quad said they were inundated with calls about other users experiencing the same problem and that it might be due to the high humidity. However, it has persisted up to now despite the cooler weather and yet I am reluctant to have to haul my spanking new speaker into my car to bring it to Quad over what appears to be a minor problem, or is it? How should I regard this, is it serious or potentially serious and what action should I take in the matter. The speakers are not easy to transport and I am reluctant to stand them up, (in case they fall), or lay them down on account of the "stress" it might put on the panel in relation to its base. What to do please, I would be so grateful for help and information. -- Derrick Fawsitt |
#2
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi
room mike www.mikewestgatesound.co.nz |
#3
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
"mikewest" wrote in message ps.com... If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi room Or speakers that don't require a high voltage power supply :-) MrT. |
#4
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
mikewest wrote:
If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi room I understand that the membrane in the Quads needs a certain amount of humidity to allow it to distribute the charge. Somewhere on the Web I have seen an article which describes how to repair/rebuild them (sorry I can't remember where). They may just need some dust removing. -- ~ Adrian Tuddenham ~ (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply) www.poppyrecords.co.uk |
#5
Posted to rec.audio.tech
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
Derrick Fawsitt wrote:
I have just acquired a pair of Quad 989 ESL speakers and am delighted with them. I have however reported to Quad that there is a slight "fizzing" noise emanating from one of them. You have to put your ear close to it to actually hear it. It started to occur during the extremely hot weather we had recently here in the UK and Quad said they were inundated with calls about other users experiencing the same problem and that it might be due to the high humidity. However, it has persisted up to now despite the cooler weather and yet I am reluctant to have to haul my spanking new speaker into my car to bring it to Quad over what appears to be a minor problem, or is it? How should I regard this, is it serious or potentially serious and what action should I take in the matter. The speakers are not easy to transport and I am reluctant to stand them up, (in case they fall), or lay them down on account of the "stress" it might put on the panel in relation to its base. What to do please, I would be so grateful for help and information. A not uncommon ESL problem. Anything which reduces the resistance of the gap between charged grid and membrane will cause it. High humidity will do that. Note that getting cooler doesn't necessarily mean lowered humdity. The most common cause if it persists is a tiny bit of hair or fibre which the charge makes stand on end across part of the gap, and it may be that high humidity is making it possible for a little hair in one speaker to arc. If you take the top off you should be able to remove the protective cloth sock and see the naked membranes. You may be able to locate the arcing by looking for it in a completely dark room, or by listening and using a good torch. Once you've found it it will be obvious whether it's easily accesible and can be easily removed, or will need the speaker to be taken apart. Don't try that unless confident of your skills. It's not a good idea to leave it alone for a long time, as if it persists it can end up causing local spark burn damage of various kinds. ESLs don't mind tiny local damage, but it matters if it's allowed to spread into larger damage. -- Chris Malcolm DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/] |
#6
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
Adrian Tuddenham wrote:
mikewest wrote: If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi room I understand that the membrane in the Quads needs a certain amount of humidity to allow it to distribute the charge. No, they have a conductive coating. They may just need some dust removing. Which can be easy or hard depening on where it is. -- Chris Malcolm DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/] |
#7
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
Chris Malcolm wrote:
Adrian Tuddenham wrote: mikewest wrote: If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi room I understand that the membrane in the Quads needs a certain amount of humidity to allow it to distribute the charge. No, they have a conductive coating. I seem to remember reading that the coating depends on humidity for its conductivity. -- ~ Adrian Tuddenham ~ (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply) www.poppyrecords.co.uk |
#8
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
Adrian Tuddenham wrote: Chris Malcolm wrote: Adrian Tuddenham wrote: mikewest wrote: If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi room I understand that the membrane in the Quads needs a certain amount of humidity to allow it to distribute the charge. No, they have a conductive coating. I seem to remember reading that the coating depends on humidity for its conductivity. You read or remember incorrectly. If that was written somewhere and you can find it, I'd recommend you see if you can get your money back, given the unreliability of that source. Having such a dependency on humidity is a real bad idea, engineering wise, because of any number of reasons, like the high degree of variability of humidity, the tendency of very fine airborne salt particle and the like to become dissolved and deposited under high- humidity conditions, the great difficulty in controlling the process during manufacturing, and many others. Also, having worked on Quads and other electrostatics, owning service documentation and more, rest assured that they DO NOT, and NEVER have depended on humidity for conductivity. They rely on specific, carefully applied high-resistance coatings such as graphite, vapor- deposited metals and the like. |
#9
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
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#11
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"Fizzing" Quad ESL problem
wrote:
Adrian Tuddenham wrote: Chris Malcolm wrote: Adrian Tuddenham wrote: mikewest wrote: If it is humidity, why not invest in a good dehumidifier for your hi-fi room I understand that the membrane in the Quads needs a certain amount of humidity to allow it to distribute the charge. No, they have a conductive coating. I seem to remember reading that the coating depends on humidity for its conductivity. You read or remember incorrectly. If that was written somewhere and you can find it, I'd recommend you see if you can get your money back, given the unreliability of that source. See URL below and Murray Peterson's quote from G.B. Patent 815,978. Having such a dependency on humidity is a real bad idea, engineering wise, because of any number of reasons, like the high degree of variability of humidity, the tendency of very fine airborne salt particle and the like to become dissolved and deposited under high- humidity conditions, the great difficulty in controlling the process during manufacturing, and many others. Also, having worked on Quads and other electrostatics, owning service documentation and more, rest assured that they DO NOT, and NEVER have depended on humidity for conductivity. They rely on specific, carefully applied high-resistance coatings such as graphite, vapor- deposited metals and the like. I thought those were all far too conductive to be used because the charge is supposed to be fairly stationary for low distortion. That was why P.Walker used a very high resistance nylon coating which needed moisture for conductivity. http://www.quadesl.org/Hard_Core/Pan...ting/originalc oating.html -- ~ Adrian Tuddenham ~ (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply) www.poppyrecords.co.uk |
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