Refurbishing Avalon Ascent Mk 2


After 25 years of service my Avalon Ascent Mk 2 have started to distort especially with classical piano.  I have isolated the problem to both 2" aluminium-manganese mid drivers.  These, I believe, were built by MB Quart of Germany, now out of business and the part seems unavailable.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on how I could bring back these speakers to their former glory. Thanks.

franzschubert
@franzschubert: have your problems been solved? My Ascents still work properly. I wonder whether these problems were age or usage related?
I retired the speakers though I still have them.  Yes, its likely to be age/usage related.  

I have the exact same problem. It’s significant on the left speaker and subtle on the right speaker. But the distortion is definitely coming from the mid range driver. I did disassemble the mid range driver that is severely distorted and found no deterioration at all in the Dome. I reassembled and it did not improve.

I have also attempted on multiple occasions to contact Avalon both by phone and through their help email system. It’s been weeks and I’ve had no response whatsoever, other than an automated response immediately after sending the first email.

I have carefully eliminated other potential problem areas such as preamplifier, amplifier, and crossover networks. All my gear is Mark Levinson.  Distortion persisted independent of audio source.

It's really disgraceful and angering that a company like Avalon chooses to ignore previous customers who have issues like this. It should be a real warning to potential new customers.