AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => Planar Circle => Topic started by: steve f on 21 May 2015, 04:16 pm
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I have a hand me down pair of very nice looking Quad 989 speakers. I don't have manuals or cords. Are the diaphragm bias cords just standard IEC cords. I want to make sure before I try to power them up.
Thanks,
Steve
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Found out IEC cords are correct. Did a plug and play. One channel is fine. The other makes popping noises that appear to come from the bass panels. My gut feeling says it's not the diaphragms.
I'm plan to uncover and vacuum carefully first.
For reference sake the noise resembles a power vacuum tube that's mechanically defective.
Jazzman are you out there?
Steve
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Next questions
Does anyone sell ESL repair parts in the USA?
I'm in Arizona. Anyone know of a repair guy in Arizona, California, or New Mexico?
I'm perfectly willing to attempt the repair myself, but parts for the panels, Mylar, coatings, and glue seem rather hard to track down. I have learned that the adhesives used by Quad are very failure prone.
Any direction is appreciated.
Steve
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Hey Steve,
The best tech I've found is Clark at Electrostatic Solutions in Kansas City.
http://estatsolution.com/index.php?bod=0 - 913-208-7657
I took my ESLs to him for a checkup and update. He is very thorough and reasonably priced for his services. I have a set purchased in 1974 picked out by Peter Walker, so I was careful to find the right person to service them. You will not be disappointed.
John
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Sorry Steve I didn't catch your post earlier. Sounds like you have a bass panel arcing so you'll have no choice but a rebuild that panel but I would have a complete refurb done on both speakers.
E-stat Solutions recommended by JohnCZ looks like a good option. If they can't fit you in, try Sheldon Stokes here:
http://www.quadesl.com/
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Steve....could be that the speakers were stored in a high humidity environment or lived in one.
Before you start tearing into them I would get them in a room with around 50 per cent humidity (or less) for two or three days, then see what happens.
Kent at Electrostatic Solutions will probably tell you the same.
http://www.estatsolution.com
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Thanks everybody.
I've spent a bit more time with the speakers. The bad one crackles when there is no signal present. Power supply for its diaphragm? The speakers have been in Arizona for a year. No changes in humidity. I'm going to call Kent today.
Steve
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I talked to Electrostatic Solutions about the speaker. A good guy who gave me a path to check out the Quad. Most likely a bass panel or two or more. He suggested that dropping the grill cloth, then shining a flashlight will show probable tears in diaphragms. Quads are known to have poor glue joints on their panels. That's why they fail. I will take a look. Worst case scenario, it will cost more than it's worth to fix them. On the other hand, these speakers are in great shape looks wise. I'll report back with my findings.
Steve
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More Quad stuff. I examined the diaphragms using the technique of shining a flashlight through the diaphragms and looking for tears. First I dropped the grill cloth. The top plate is attached with a pair of keyholes and screws. Slide it to the right and the plate pops off. The cloth is sort of a sock secured by a Velcro type of attachment. I put the speaker on a coffee table. ( My wife is a tolerant, music loving lady.) There is no evidence of tears, no holes, no stretching deformities. When I plugged the speakers back in the popping noise continued.
I'm of the belief that without physical diaphragm damage, there has to be something going on with the bias supply.
Comments please.
Steve
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The popping sound is arcing. Since it happens with no music signal, I figure it's probably the bias charge arcing off the diaphragm into a burn thru area on one of the stators-- or possibly a corroded connection in the bias signal path or where the bias lead contacts the diaphragm. If you've had any arcing occurring previously while the speakers were playing, then you may have a burn thru on the stator insulation and the charge building up on the diaphragm is finding that weak spot on the stator and arcing to it.
Now that you have the sock off, you may be able to visibly locate source of the arcing. Try this:
Energize the bias supply, then turn off all lights and pull down window shades to darken the room completely. The arcing may well be visible in the dark.
Good luck with it!
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Thanks Jazzman.
I tried to check for "lightning" but didn't notice any. The sound is more like a beating noise than a pop. I can't find any obvious damage. I'll keep playing with it for awhile longer. I'm still unsure if I want to keep the Quads or not. Shipping them cross country and paying for a rebuild would be cost prohibitive for me. There are now other pairs of 'stats available that would be within about $100 of the cost and shipping of a single Quad. I would have to be a huge fanboy, and I'm not.
I'm considering tearing them down myself, and rebuilding if I can find materials, or placing them on Audiogone to provide a project for another guy. Decisions, decisions.
steve
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Steve, forgive me if I insult you, but are you confusing the dust cover with the diaphragm?
The dust cover is just that, a thin sheet of Saran Wrap-like material that covers both front and back of the grid where the electrostatic diaphragm stuff is.
The "no stretches" you mention sounds like the dust cover. Stretched or deformed diaphragms would be pretty hard to see since they are sandwiched between the stator plates (metal plates with small holes in them)
Again, if I have insulted your Quadyness, please forgive.
Louis
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I always that it was Your Quadliness?
It would be worth buying a pair just for the honorific.
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Louie,
LOL. Insulted by someone trying to help, never.
I'm aware of the covers. I suspect "Quadliness" is correct.
I'm not sure I want to keep the title or the speakers though.
steve
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Steve,
Wikipedia says Quadliness....defer to you.
I will give you this to ponder. If you don't bite the bullet and fix them or have them fixed, you could be making a bad mistake.
I went through the same deal with the first pair of ESL 63s I had, sold them to a buddy, he spent the money on them, I spent the next 15 years and a good bit of money trying to get back the magic I heard with the 63's. Now I have the 63s again, and a back basement room with several pairs of speakers I need to peddle to someone else.
There really is nothing like them...nothing.
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Louie,
I love ESLs. Ive owned, built, and repaired many different speakers. I've had horns (very difficult to get right) Maggies (not in the same league as ESLs) open baffle (Linkwitz Orion, quite good) lots of boxes (sealed, vented, transmission lines) I have yet to build a floor to ceiling line array. I have a garage bay full of audio projects, and a patient wife.
I've come around to agreeing with you. The 989 is a great speaker. I find that some other highly touted ESLs, mostly the curved or faceted types, fall short in terms of clarity and detail.
Repair update: I had a nice conversation with Russ Knotts, who suggested I pull the base plate off the speaker, and take a look at the neon bulb which indicates wether the speaker is charging properly. He said that the bulb should flash slowly, about every three seconds. Mine flickers constantly. I'm going into the bias supply first, before I do panels.
Steve
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My 63s have a small, round, plastic plug on the outside of the base in the back that can be removed to be able to see the neon light thingy.
FWIW, when my top panel was making Geiger counter noises, the neon light was flashing continuosly, now its back to normal.
Kent at EstatSolutions said this about the neon light: (from an Audio Asylum discussion a couple years ago.) "Since you state the flasher unit is not flashing rapidly or constantly I would rule out high humidity as the issue. The flasher unit, a neon lamp versus a LED, would be flashing greater than once per second if the humidity were high.
My guess is you have a panel(s) going bad from leakage damage. To confirm this try to look at the flasher unit when the speaker makes some noise. When the noise occurs you will see the flasher unit light up and blink rapidly while the noise is present, and then return to normal flash rate once the noise disappears."
Maybe this helps. Good luck.
I have a pair of Kingsound Queens...electrostats on top, cone on bottom, I have heard the Kingsound Kings (full range esl) and I have heard all the Martin Logans, and etc, etc... I am told the Soundlabs are at least as wondrous as the Quads, but my Quads, in my little basement room, in my system, are simply magical. Hope selling the 989s is a last resort of the last resort.
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I know your's is making noise even without a music signal applied, but just in case you are using a tube amp I wanted to mention that my 2905s would pop when I had worn tubes in my amps, new tubes stopped the popping. A pair of large cone speakers gave no hint of worn tubes, only the Quads complained. A ss amp also did not pop. fwiw...
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I'm currently using a solid state amp. My speaker will act up with no amp attached. I'm considering replacing the electrolytic caps first. That is a cheap fix. If the problem continues, Kansas is my closest repair point.
So everybody, what is the preferred shipping carrier? I have the original boxes and packing materials. It's one big box! Arizona to Kansas might even be a road trip.
Steve
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step up transformer bad ?
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The problem is everything looks good. The panels, the circuit boards, etc. show no physical signs of failure. I haven't started a tear down yet. It will be about three weeks before I can start.
Steve
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Steve,
Electrostatic Solutions has a carrier that they use just for Quad and related products. Give Clark a call and he can set you up.
John
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Thank you John.
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I could be mistaken but sometimes things just seem to pick you.
I've got a set of real early MMGs and they've been rebuilt a time or two and one of them will be going back to Magnepan for a rebuild as the wires look to be coming unhinged (kind of like the owner in regards to these things).
Financially, it makes no sense whatsoever to hold onto them but they're MY speakers.
I've had later MMGs but I sold them and kept the original guys.
It's funny, I didn't really care for the MMGs when I first got them and my first thought was to box them back up and return them to get my money back and get something else but now they'll never be for sale.
This may be the case with you and your Quads.
You may not be especially thrilled with them and biting the bullet and getting them fixed up might suck but once you do, ten years from now you'll still have them and will come to think of them as MY speakers. Other speakers may come and go but those will remain.
They may not be the latest or the greatest but that really doesn't matter if they suit you just fine.
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Hi Steve,
You may be right.
The Quads were a gift. Even a maximum repair would be below the resale value of the speaker. Sound wise they are better then about 95% of what's out there. Quad does a beautiful job of voicing their ESLs. im just afraid thar if I repair one, the other will fail shortly. Call me neurotic.
I bought a pair of early MMGs. They were eventually gifted to my sister in law. She loves them.
Steve
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"if I repair one, the other will fail shortly. Call me neurotic." Naw, man, not neurotic but enlightened. :)
I replaced the noisy panel in my 63s...pretty easy. It was, however, the top panel, destroyed one dustcover, but it was probably time for a new one anyway And then....and then....I fired them up and guess what?
Same noise, from the same place. Opened the corners of the dust cover, turned the de-humidifier down a notch, let it run all night, and this morning...wait for it....the noise is almost gone...still pops a little once in a while, but you can only hear it with your ear right at the speaker...so I guess that's an improvement.
Now, just to prove the line between neurosis and psychosis is very fine, indeed, I am talking with a guy about buying his pair of ESL 57s that "need a little work on the bass panels"
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Psychotic would be looking for two pair of 57s adding super tweeters, then large transmission line bass speakers. A modern take on the old HDQ speakers.
The only thing, in my mind at least, holding me back from repairing the 989s is the possibility that the factory direct Essence ESL might be a more reliable equivalent for equal money. I know how good the 989 is. The Essence is the best speaker nobody has ever heard. They are based on the old Final ESLs but with a few slick design updates. Hopefully a member or two knows both speakers.
Steve
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Steve,
Yes, the Essence are interesting, and yes, there have been developments in manufacturing, especially in depositing the conductive coating on stators, that simply were not available to Quad (although this is now available).
I have yet to find anyone on any of the planar boards who has actually heard the Essence, so by all means get a set and tell us all about it. :)
I have a pair of Kingsound Queens...the electrostatic portion of which is built using the latest coating techniques, etc, etc, and runs with a 12 volt power supply.
When I began to hear the noise from one of my Quads, I put the Queens back into the system, and I should point out I had thought the Queens were pretty good when I was running them. After some eight months listening to the Quads, frankly, the Queens sucked.
Obviously they did not suck, but the difference between the Queens and the Quads was really drammatic.
I suspect that the Quads are so satisfying because they were designed for music lovers, not high end hifi folks. I am afraid the Essence (s) will be more of the same...I am afraid that if you live with the Quads for a while, you won't be happy with anything else. In fact, I would posit that anyone who doubts that this is true has not lived with the Quads. I went for years without Quads after having a pair for some time and I spent most of that time looking for that Quad sound.
Fix the damn 989s, man, hell, I will loan you my Queens to use while your 989s are in Kansas City if you will pay the shipping cost back and forth.
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I've decided to go with the Quad repairs. I had the working Quad on the left channel, and a volume matched single driver speaker on the right. After about an hour, I took the good Quad out of the system and put in the other single driver speaker. I was surprised that the sound field absolutely collapsed. No comparison.
"Fix the damn989s" is good advice.
Steve
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Good man.
There is a section in downtown KC that is pretty cool, shopping, music and dining.
One more word of advice....if you take the speakers to Kent, don't listen to his Soundlabs, :)
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I changed the 220 mu cap in the bad Quad. The speaker improved but it still has to go to KC. I've been traveling too much to set up the repairs. Pretty soon though. That's my update.
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C'mon man, share the secret :) You said you changed the input cap, to a new one? a bigger one? what? No fair teasing!!!!
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No big secret. It's just a non polarized electrolytic cap. The original was rated for 50 volts, and the replacement is a 100 volt rating. Wasn't intentional, just available, and the same can size. You would have a bit of difficulty putting in a boutique cap. There isn't a lot of room, and the board through holes are the smallest I've ever seen. Drilling would be necessary.
There is one more electrolytic cap, a radial type, on the board. I left it alone, but should have changed it while I had the board out. I wanted to see if it was a cap issue, and which one if any.
The beating noise diminished substantially after the cap change. It doesn't mean a whole lot, because the problem still exists. I'm going to change the other cap out, before I send it to KC. So far all I know is that the speaker needed a cap, and that it still has a problem.
steve
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To more or less quote Kent McCollum, the Quads are wonderful, but when the devil gets inside them they can be tough to straighten out....and this is from a man who rebuilds them for a living.
Does the 988 have the all in one board (mother board) or are they separate like the 63?
Not sure what the input cap would have to do with a panel making a noise, but it does sound like you MIGHT have an electronics problem of some sort.
Maybe you could try leaving the speakers powered up for a couple of weeks...apparently they can get hinkey sitting around for extended periods. The guys in England say leave them on all the time. Kent disagrees for understandable reasons.
But...my rebuilt panel was making a popping noise, Kent suggested leaving the speakers on for a couple of weeks before sending the panel back and after a couple of weeks the popping noise is certainly better, and is almost gone completely.
You do know to let the speaker sit powered off overnight before you stick your hand in there, right? :)
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Great, now I need an exorcist? :lol:
I'm going to replace the second cap, then leave the speakers on for a week. I will be very careful about avoiding high voltages.
That is as far as I want to take the speaker myself. It goes to KC after that.
steve
Edit: the 989s appear to be mostly 63s with extra bass panels. Separate boards, and all.
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deleted double post.
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Kent McCollum: AKA: The Quad Exorcist. :)
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The devil has finished with one Quad, and has started messing up the other. Groan. I just knew it. I'll have to send or deliver both to KC. And I still have a bunch of other speaker projects to finish. I know, it's all about priorities and dollars..
Steve
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I'd say just leave em turned on for a good while. The little fellers apparently don't like sitting. Or bite the bullet.
Does this mean the one with the noise has healed itself?
And now the other one is twitchy?
Plug em in, turn em on and leave them...this might work and it is somewhat cheaper than a trip to KC.
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One Quad is failed. The other is starting to exhibit some popping noise. The 989s are about 12 years old. Although the previous owner took good care of them, the poor adhesives used in the day have taken their toll. I will have to bite the bullet. We will box them up and plan a road trip to KC. Hey, I love good BBQ.
Steve
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Steve,
Yep, sounds as though the 989's need a trip to Dr. Kent's for a check up.
Had I been closer to KC, that's what I would have done. The hassle and expense of shipping forced me to try some repair work myself (with rebuilt panel from Kent), my US Monitors are working fine now, but the process would have been significantly easier on my frustration level if I could have just handed them off in KC.
The Quads of this type are both complicated and delicate physically. When right, they are glorious, when bad, they are horrid. :)
Good luck,
Louis
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Well now there is a sidetrack. I bought a pair of Sanders ESLs. The Quads are not discards. They will become my November project out in the garage. I'll join the ranks of take them apart, send out the panels, etc. I might be foolish to repair a diaphragm or two myself. I can't ruin something that is already broken. I'm always happiest when I have an interesting challenge on hand, and boy do I ever.
steve
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Well now there is a sidetrack. I bought a pair of Sanders ESLs.
Nice. Which Sanders? I've only been able to listen to them via Sanders amps in past and would be interested in how they sound with other amps.
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Steve,
Good luck with your Quad repair project.
Essay assignment: 500 words or less compare and contrast performance Sanders vs Quad. :green:
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Jon L, I bought 10C speakers. I didn't buy a Magtech, too rich for my blood. Someday.
Don S, I'll need some luck for the Quad repair. I will sharpen a pencil and do a comparison. The repair will be a winter project, and I'll try to document it. There's no shortage of damaged Quads.
Louie3, I couldn't resist getting another ESL while Quads are down.
steve
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Roger could not resist.
It is unfortunate you can't compare the two. I have wondered about the Sanders speakers, too. If you buy the ERAudio kit (bout $300), and read the directions constantly between now and winter, I think you will find you can, in fact, repair the panels.
I have the kit and the most complicated part of the panel repair is the one in your head.
One thing is for sure, you gotta have a clean work table that allows you to not spend hours bent over at a bad angle or you will be on Aleve for a week, and that's bad for your kidneys.
Certainly interested in your thoughts about the Sanders. 10C is a hybrid, right? You know...I bet a Quad 909 would work like a champ with the 10Cs.
You never really got a clean listen to the Quads, right?
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Steve,
I did not know you had not listened to the Quads working properly.
Here is a link to the EARkit louie3 mentioned. I had never heard of it and was curious.
http://www.eraudio.com.au/ESL_Repair_Kits/esl_repair_kits.html
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I had one Quad work fine for awhile. The other was making popping noises from day one. I'm familiar with Quads in general. Friends owned both 57 and 63 models. The sound of the working Quad convinced me to ship the other for repairs. I spent some time doing a minor fix or two, but a rebuild was in order. Then the other one started failing too. I debated buying the Essence ESLs but nobody seems to have any experience with them. I loved what I heard, and I'm an admitted audio nut. ( although I accept science, no audio voodoo need apply) I was going to replace my Linkwitz Orion speakers with them.
I'm going to repair the Quads, and will contact the company in your link. I'll be working in my garage. I live in Arizona so that means it will be a winter project.
steve
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Steve,
Please not that I have no knowledge of that company's product. I do have a friend who replaced the dust covers on his Quads and won't do it again. :shake: It was not a fun project and he ruined as much material as he got to fit right. The product was not from the link I sent you but my friend said the lighter the material the more "fun" it is to work with. He is an electronics technician and repairs audio equipment for fun and profit. Redoing Quad panels is an entirely different skill set.
It appears that the kit includes extra material but I am not sure how much is needed per speaker.
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Don,
No worries. I'm the kind of guy who actually enjoys projects like this. The worst thing I can do is lose the cost of the repair parts. That's all part of ESL 101 lab fees. I can set up shop in my garage and work on them at a leisurely pace this winter. (I'm in Arizona, no summer garage stuff here.) i just figure that between the old adhesives, old diaphragms, old dust overs, and a couple of old electrolytic capacitors, a full rebuild is in order. It will keep me out of trouble.
steve
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I did make one mistake. I don't have any XLR cables. I went to a store and found out that you can get 3' cables or very long ones. So I ordered what I needed online. No ESLs until tomorrow night. Aargh!!!
It's kinda funny to be listening to a pair of point source speakers, especially small ones, but looking at a pair of planar speakers. There is a disconnect there.
steve
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Tonight I got everything assembled, made a few rudimentary adjustments, put in a good demo disc, and hit play. Wow, just wow. My search is over.
I'll be dialing things in a bit over the next few weeks, but not a whole lot. The Sanders 10C are that good.
I'm happy.
steve
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How big are these things?
How big is yer room?
Dammit, Steve, are you saying I ain't done with the search?
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They're just shy of six feet tall and about fifteen inched wide, the TL bass part extends about eighteen inches. They weigh about eighty pounds each.
My room sucks. I don't have a dedicated room. I have a side of a great room area, basically my living room open to the rest of the area. It's a large acoustic space. If they aren't controlled directivity speakers, they don't work. Planars do just fine.
You are more than three fourths of the way there. Quads, and a great amp to drive them, you're good.
The Sanders primary advantage over Quads is their ability to crank. Somebody should build a concentric driven Quad with Sanders panel construction.
There are negatives. I've noticed that some music I enjoyed before, now show recording defects. Yeah, I stayed up all night listening.
steve
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We should see some pictures...
Windows 10 is acting goofy in case anyone is thinking of updating - stupid emoticons aren't getting picked up.
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Hi Steve,
Yeah I'll have to post a couple pics. It might be a few days though. Right now my LR looks like a hi-fi shop changing out its gear. My wife, who supports my insane hobby as a music lover, would shoot me if I post any pic of the mess before I repack stuff and put away boxes.
steve
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Bless wives with patience for a little mess to hear good music. These people are a national treasure.
I do have a dedicated room, it's a little strange, but my wife always asks how messy it is before she comes down for a listen. If the music is piano concertos, she will listen anyway.
I have three options with the Quads...run them full range, alone; run them full range with subs; or run the top end through a venerable Dahlquist LP 1 electronic xover crossing at 40 hz to the subs.
Either way, they play loud enough for me...in my room (20X20, but with slightly less than 8-foot ceiling. Mucho treatment on back wall, bass traps in all four corners, concrete walls and floor, suspended ceiling (on 2x8 floor joists for the room above).
But...as I teeter on the brink of senility, I am much more conscious of damage to my hearing from too loud.
So I am training myself to listen a little lower. Seems to be working well, as long as the system is transparent enough.
Hearing recording defects is telling you something... More transparent? Tipped up on top? One thing I have learned about electrostats is that the differences among and between amps, while audible, is less obvious than with some boxes. If you look at the amplification used with Quads by other folks its all over the place...from mid-fi integrateds to Audio Note's the price of decent housing and beyond.
After your mention of slam, I hooked up the system through the Dahlquist xover, which passes the top end through one (Kimber) good cap (all the electronic stuff is done below the xover point).
I hear a very slight difference in transparency with things set up this way. Maybe I will roll this cap and see what happens...its a small value, thus not too pricey.
But with the Quad 909, this system will play LOUD!! (Subs are home brew 12 inchers in boxes built from two layers of 3/4 inch plywood made from audiophile approved Brazilian coconuts or something, driven by plate amps sitting outside the boxes.)
Man, this is fun.
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(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=125927)
It's a start. i still have a lot of work to do. The room is the biggest part of the problem.
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i have to add that there is nothing exotic in the system as pictured. The junk on the upper left of the shelving is just cable box, phone, and internet equipment. The two boxes on the right are an Essence HDACC and a generic Samsung BluRay player. Second shelf is the digital crossover/equalizer, a Sanders modified Behringer. Below that a Crown XLS1500 and Behringer EP4000. All cabling is very generic. I removed a subwoofer as it doesn't seem necessary.
Steve
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I finally got the Sanders 10C dialed in. I flat out love them. Very small adjustments were necessary. All of a sudden things just popped into place. This means tape on the floor to mark position.
steve
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Great news Steve,
Those speakers are so directional you have to hear it to believe it (and beaming isn't a bad thing!).
I have no doubt your 10C's sound fantastic, properly setup.
I relied heavily on Sanders’ design principles for my beam-splitter transmission line hybrid ESL’s and they are pretty amazing too. When tweaking mine I also did exact physical measurements for distance and aiming and also used the DSP’s digital delay to exactly time-align the woofers to the panels. It was Roger who talked me into tossing my original analog active crossover and going full digital-- and wow!
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Jazzman,
I have to tell you about how I ended up with the Sanders speakers. Roger is a great guy. I wrote to him about my AXPONA experience of his room. My son and I had just walked in. An orchestral piece was playing. I told my 35 year old son to sit down and listen, that's what an orchestra sounds like. (Ever the dad telling my kid what to do.) When I started getting into the failing Quad 989s, I found out that nobody who did repairs, wanted to share their 'secret sauce' recipes with me. Roger wrote back about my rave review, and kindly offered to answer any ESL questions I might have. We exchanged a couple of emails about the Quads, and talk about enlightenment, I was now pointed in a good direction. He added a ps that there was one pair of 10C speakers left, and would I be interested in giving him a bit more warehouse space? We made a deal, thanks Roger, and I am a happy camper. Too bad I couldn't afford a Magtech amp. I'll have to save up for one.
Who knows, perhaps one day I'll get a chance to listen to your speakers. I'm sure they sound fantastic.
For anyone on the ESL fence, you have to try them. As good as planar magnetics are, and open baffle too, I find that only ESLs and some horns have that jump factor live music has.
steve
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I have a problem with the ESL-63 (on only one of the speakers). There is continuous scratchy/static extraneous noise after it is plugged in and turned on (but the speaker still sound good otherwise). But there is no noise when the power is unplugged (as is normal for the 63, the sound coming from my CD player, via the RCA cables, continues for a while, even after power has been unplugged, but there is no more extraneous noise once the power is unplugged). The orange neon light is flashing quickly, which would indicate a bad panel (?)
I have taken the fabric cover down, and shined a torch on the inside, and the only unusual thing is a black 1cm in diameter on the stator (I assume the bronze mesh with round holes is the stator). It looks like a burn mark. Can I keep using the speaker for the time being without making it worse? Can anyone please tell me what is going on?
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If the scratchy sound occurs when the speaker is plugged in, with no music playing, it's the bias voltage arcing, either around the contact, somewhere along the panel periphery, or anywhere on the panel.
Since you have a black mark, which is no doubt a burn thru, the scratchy sound is most likely emanating from there, and is probably accompanied by a hole burned through the diaphragm. A hole (or even several holes) the diaphragm isn't a big deal per-se, as long as the diaphragm tension is maintained. It's the increasing arcing damage to the stator that's a potential problem.
There is bound to be at least some charge loss on the diaphragm, so I would bet the output is down a bit compared to the non-scratchy speaker, even if it still sounds OK. And it will get worse over time. Were it not for the and very high resistance of the diaphragm coating preventing the full charge from shunting to the burn thru area faster than the bias supply can maintain it, the burn through would have already killed the speaker.
If the burn thru progresses to arcing between the stators, rather than just diaphragm-to-stator, your amp will see it as a dead short. If you start to hear any high-amplitude pops, shut it down immediately or risk shorting out the speaker's step-up transformer and/or your amp.
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I don't know what would have caused the burn-through. I recently put the speakers in a cupboard for about a week, maybe that meant more dust got into them, and I was also moving the speakers around a bit to get them in there. But the speakers had been reconditioned by a professional earlier in the year (not long ago).
Thanks for your help. Do you think it would be possible to fix it myself? Or would I need to take it to a speaker repair shop? Should it cost a lot of money for them to do it?
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I've never disassembled an ESL-63 and I'm not familiar with its power supply, so I suggest you seek other advise, besides mine.
I have built DIY ESL's and I understand generally how they work. I suspect you have a panel going bad. And I believ the 63 has two bass panels plus a mid/treble panel in the center.
I think it's unlikely that putting the speaker in storage caused the problem, unless it was a very damp environment. Quad may have even enclosed the panels inside plastic dust covers like they did in the ESL-57.
A burn thru starts small and gets progressively worse; eventually causing the panel to fail. I've heard of people repairing a burn thru by overcoating the burn area on the stator with paint or even clear fingernail polish-- but you would have to disassemble the panel access it, and then you would have to replace the diaphragm, spacers, and the diaphragm coating. And to do that you would also have to know how much to tension the diaphragm.
To confirm that the panel is arcing, you might try I removing the outer fabric dust cover and playing the speaker in a darkened room. In the dark, you should be able to visibly see any arcing and locate the burn thru, if that in fact is the issue.
There's a company in Australia that may have a rebuild kit; although I can't recall the company name (senior moment). And there's a very sharp guy here in the states named Sheldon Stokes that rebuilds ESL 57's -- maybe 63's too. You can find Sheldon's website by Googling his name.
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I have a pair of 63's and Jazzman has diagnosed your problem correctly in my experience. My burn came from an overly enthusiastic, alcohol assisted listening session.
Try running them in the dark without socks to confirm. Mine looked like a miniature thunderstorm. Panel will need rebuilding/replacing. Mine was done ~ 10 years ago. If I can find the fellow (in Florida, IIRC), I'll pm the contact info (no affiliation other than being satisfied customer). Ran around $300, IIRC. Good luck.
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Cannot go wrong with Kent and Electrostatic Solutions, for repairs and total rebuilds. He is the best one and is located in KC so good for shipping them to him no matter where you live.