User's Manual The Quest Speaker System T H E E L E C T R O S TAT IC T E C H N O L O G Y
Important Contents Your Quest speakers are provided with an automatic Limited 90 Day Warranty coverage. Introduction 3 Installation in Brief 4 The Electrostatic Concept 5 History 6 Martin-Logan Exclusives 8 You have the option, at no additional charge, to receive Limited 3 Year Warranty coverage. To obtain Limited 3 Year Warranty coverage you need only complete and return the Certificate of Registration that was included with your speakers to Martin-Logan, within 30 days of purchase.
Introduction Congratulations, you have invested in one of the world’s premier loudspeaker systems! The result of cumulative technology gleaned from eight previous Research and Development projects, the Quest represents the latest developments in Electrostatic and Hybrid loudspeaker technology.
Installation in Brief We know you are eager to hear your new Quest loudspeakers, so this section is provided to allow fast and easy set up. Once you have them operational, please take the time to read, in depth, the rest of the information in this manual. It will give you perspective on how to obtain the best possible performance from your system.
The Electrostatic Concept How can sound be reproduced by something that you are able to see through? Electrostatic energy makes this possible. music. This technique is known as push-pull operation and is a major contributor to the sonic purity of the electrostatic concept due to its exceptional linearity and low distortion.
History In the late 1800’s, any loudspeaker was considered exotic. Today, most of us take the wonders of sound reproduction for granted. outcome would dictate the way that future generations would refer to loudspeakers as being either "conventional", or "exotic". It was 1880 before Thomas Edison had invented the first phonograph. This was a horn-loaded diaphragm that was excited by a playback stylus.
arrays. The test instrument needed an extremely accurate speaker, but Janszen found that the cone speakers of the period were too nonlinear in phase and amplitude response to meet his criteria. Janszen believed that electrostats were inherently more linear than cones, so he built a model using a thin plastic diaphragm treated with a conductive coating. This model confirmed Janszen's beliefs, for it exhibited remarkable phase and amplitude linearity.
Martin-Logan Exclusives Full Range Operation The most significant advantage of Martin-Logan's exclusive transducer technology reveals itself when you compare to examples of other loudspeaker products on the market today. of music and then combined electrically so that the sum of the parts equals the total signal. While this sounds nice in theory, a different story unfolds in real-world conditions.
Vapor Deposited Film Curvilinear Line Source The diaphragm material used in all Martin-Logan speakers employs an extremely sophisticated vapor deposited conductive polymer surface. A proprietary conductive compound is vaporized then electrostatically driven into the surface of the polymer film in a vacuum chamber. This process allows an optically transparent membrane, adds no mass to the diaphragm and is extremely uniform in its surface resistivity characteristics.
Operation AC Power Connection Signal Connection Because your Martin-Logan Quests use an internal power supply to energize their electrostatic cells with high-voltage DC, they must be connected to an AC power source. For this reason they are provided with the proper IEC standard power cords. These cords should be firmly inserted into the AC power receptacles on the rear connection panel of the speakers, then to any convenient AC wall outlet.
CAUTION! Turn your amplifier off before making or breaking any signal connections! The chassis is earth grounded and can present a short circuit to your amplifier if contact is made! OUTPUT INPUT Preamplifier Standard Connection OUTPUT Amplifier OUTPUT INPUT INPUT Connect the speaker wire from your amplifier to the top-most AMPLIFIER CONNECTIONS Full-Range/HighPass Input binding post. See figure 1. Figure 1 1. Standard connection. One channel shown.
Operation Passive Bi-amplification For those of you that desire ultimate performance, the Quest may be passively bi-amplified using the existing internal passive crossover elements. WARNING! Only after the BIWIRE/BI-AMP SWITCH is in the Bi-Wire/Bi-Amp position may you connect individual runs of speaker cable from your amplifier to the Low-pass and Highpass AMPLIFIER CONNECTIONS binding posts.
0dB -3dB Flat -3dB -6dB OUTPUT INPUT Preamplifier 20Hz 200Hz Effects of the Bass Contour Switch OUTPUT Amplifier INPUT OUTPUT INPUT +2dB 0dB -2dB +2dB 2.5kHz 100Hz 20kHz Effects of the Presence Contour Switch Figure 4 4. Vertical passive bi-amplification. One channel shown. BI-WIRE/BI-AMP Active Bi-Amplification The passive crossover elements in the Quest are very complex electrical devices with unique voicing and equalization. They cannot be replaced with a standard electronic crossover.
Room Acoustics Your Room This is one of those areas that requires both a little background to understand and some time and experimentation to obtain the best performance from your system. Your room is actually a component and an important part of your system. This component is a very large variable and can dramatically add to, or subtract from, a great musical experience. All sound is composed of waves.
Rules of Thumb Hard vs. Soft Surfaces Surfaces. If the front or back wall of your listening room is soft, it may benefit you to have a hard or reflective wall in opposition. As well, the ceiling and floor should follow the same basic guideline. However, the side walls should be roughly the same in order to deliver a focused image. This rule suggests that a little reflection is good.
Room Acoustics and Dispersion Interactions Controlled Horizontal Dispersion Controlled Vertical Dispersion Your Quests launch a 30 degree dispersion pattern when viewed from above. This horizontal dispersion field gives you a choice of good seats for the performance while minimizing interactions with side walls. See Figure 1. As you can see from the illustrations, your Quest speakers project a controlled dispersion pattern. Each Quest is a four foot line source beginning two feet above floor level.
Three Major Types of Dispersion In the field of loudspeaker design, it is a known fact that as the sound wave becomes progressively smaller than the transducer producing it, the dispersion of that wave becomes more and more narrow, or directional. This fact occurs as long as the transducer is a flat surface. Large flat panel speakers exhibit venetian blind effects due to this phenomenon. This is why most manufacturers opt for small drivers (i.e.
Placement Listening Position The Wall Behind the Speakers By now your speakers should be placed approximately 2 to 3 feet from the front wall (wall in front of the listening position) and at least 1 to 2 feet from the side walls. Your sitting distance should be further than the distance between the speakers themselves. What you are trying to attain is the impression of good center imaging and stage width. The front wall (the wall behind your speakers), should not be extremely hard or soft.
Experimentation Toe-in Toe-in. Now you can begin to experiment. First begin by toeing your speakers in towards the listening area and then toeing them straight into the room. You will notice that the tonal balance changes ever so slightly. You will also notice the imaging changing. Generally it is found that the ideal listening position is with the speakers slightly toed-in so that you are listening to the inner third of the curved transducer section.
Placement The X-tra "Tweek" A major cable company developed the following procedure for speaker placement. As a final test of exact placement, use these measurements for your speakers placement, and see what can happen to the ultimate enhancement of your system's performance. The procedure consists of two basic measurements: 1) distance from the front wall (wall in front of the listening position) to the center of the curvilinear transducer.
Questions What size of an amplifier should I use with the Quests? We recommend an amplifier with 100 to 200 watts per channel for most applications. The Quest will perform well with either a tube or transistorized amplifier, and will reveal the sonic character of either type. However, it is important that the amplifier be stable operating into varying impedance loads: a stable amplifier will be able to deliver twice its rated wattage into 4 Ohms and should again double into 2 Ohms.
Troubleshooting No Output Check that all your system components are turned on. Check your speaker wires and connections. Poor Imaging Check placement. Are both speakers the same distance from the walls? Do they have the same amount of toein? Try moving the speakers away from the front and side walls. Check all interconnecting cables. Check the polarity of the speaker wires. Are they connected properly? Weak Output, Loss of Highs Check the power cord.
Recommended Music Analog Discs: Compact Discs: Astounding Sound Show ......... Reference Recordings RR-7 Pachelbel Canon: Chet Atkins in Hollywood ............................. RCA LSP-1993 The Acadamy of Ancient Music, L'Oiseau-Lyre 410 553-2 Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique ........ Chesky Records CR1 Count Basie & His Orchestra: 88 Basie Street, Pablo 3112-42 Big Band Jazz ........................................ Umbrella UMB-DD4 David Benoit: The Chicago Symphony Winds ...................
Glossary AC AC. Abbreviation for alternating current. Active crossover crossover. Uses active devices (transistors, IC’s, tubes) and some form of power supply to operate. Amplitude Amplitude. The extreme range of a signal. Usually measured from the average to the extreme. Arc Arc. The visible sparks generated by an electrical discharge. Bass Bass. The lowest frequencies of sound. Bi-Amplification Bi-Amplification.
Midrange Midrange. The middle frequencies where the ear is the most sensitive. Passive crossover crossover. Uses no active components (transistors, IC’s, tubes) and needs no power supply (AC, DC, battery) to operate. The crossover in a typical loudspeaker is of the passive variety. Passive crossovers consist of capacitors, inductors and resistors. Phase Phase. The amount by which one sine wave leads or lags a second wave of the same frequency. The difference is described by the term phase angle.
Quest Specifications The Quest hybrid speaker system consists of a broad-range single element electrostatic transducer integrated with a quick-response woofer. This approach takes advantage of the benefits that both technologies have to offer. Dispersion is a controlled 30 degrees. This was achieved by curving the electrostatic transducer element itself, an elegantly simple solution.
Notes Quest User's Manual Page 27
$ 3.00 T H E E L E C T R O S TA T IC T E C H N O L O G Y 2001 delaware street p.o. box 707 lawrence, kansas 66044 ph: 913.749.0133 © 1990 martin-logan ltd.
