Posted by Duke on November 11, 2002 at 10:06:24:
In Reply to: New panels have faults posted by Roy on November 10, 2002 at 10:13:35:
Hello Roy,
Sorry to hear you're having problems, but Sound Lab will take care of you.
On the bass issue, if the panels are flat-dropped in shipping, the diaphragms may suffer an air-blast that will de-tension them. This happened to me once. When I got my first pair of M-3's, I thought they had very poor bass. But it turned out they just needed to have their diaphragms re-tensioned by heat-treatign them - then, the bass was wonderful.
The lack of high frequency energy in the panel center sounds to me like that panel isn't fully charged up. I'd say give it a little more time to charge, and then if it still doesn't come to life, try swapping the backplates to see if the problem stays with the panel or follows the backplate.
If the panels where shipped by airplane, they get real cold in flight, so you'll need to give them a couple of days of playing to re-acclimate them. In any event, the more time they have to charge up and break in a bit, the better they should sound - if not, then there's a problem.
If by chance you are the gentleman in England who just got a pair of A-3 cores with the white cloth, then that white cloth is a problem. The old-style white cloth was more porous than the new stuff is - unfortunately, the old stuff is no longer available. The new white cloth is awful - that alone can significantly stifle the bass.
Any chance you might consider doing a little amateur speaker overhauling, and install your old grille cloth in place of the new? While you're at it, you could also heat-treat your diaphragms. Make sure you follow Sound Lab's instructions on that, and keep the heat gun moving.
I'd be more than happy to work with you, and I've already talked to Sound Lab about your situation. I think you'll be hearing from Roger shortly.
But I just wanted to toss out some ideas here, based on my experience (which is insignificant next to Roger's, of course). Don't worry - your situation will be taken care of.
Best regards,
Duke LeJeune
AudioKinesis
(504) 866-1730