Panorama 2 Squeal from Outer Speakers

[Pistonbroke]

Hello all, newbie here. Had my Panorama2 Sound bar for quite a few years now and it has been a stellar (if expensive) performer. Really great sound. Recently it started making a high pitched "squeal" from both outer speakers (the ones on each end of the bar) and didn't matter what level the volume was at, even muted, but the pitch did change with volume change...

I disconnected the Optical connection - the only one i ever use and the squeal was still there.

It is random, as some days it isn't apparent, but it's getting more frequent.

Wondered if anyone here has had a similar issue and potential fix ?

I know this Soundbar is long discontinued by B&W - they don't even list it on their website in the archived products but wondered if there is any firmware update available or a hard reset option in case that might help.

Realize very old equipment and wouldn't expect it to last forever, but this forum seems to have a lot of knowledgeable folks, so thought i'd ask.
Thanks, Regards, Kev

[Kevin P]

I would say capacitor(s) inside have gone bad. A repair tech may be able to fix it, but, if it's old, maybe time for Santa to drop an upgrade down the chimney?

[Pistonbroke]

Thanks Kev, only odd that it's both of the outside drivers, assume one Cap wouldn't be shared by both speakers, anyways i'm handy with a soldering iron, so might disassemble and look for any fried components ! This is 2020 - Santa unlikely to send me the $1200 Formation Bar

[Stoney]

I'm guessing the outside speakers are tweeters or high/mids. High frequency noise being let through by bad power supply filter caps are routed to the tweets/mids by the cross over network.
Edit:
Just looked at the user manual. Looks like the outside speakers are a separate channel of the surround setup.
Wish I could remember where the service site for B&W is that has their service manuals/schematics.

Edit:

https://bwgroupsupport.com/manuals/service

[Pistonbroke]

Thanks Stoney, that would have been an awesome reference, unfortunately the Panorama Soundbars are not in that comprehensive list... Really appreciate you pointing out that great resource though.

Kev

[Kevin P]

Considering the noise changes pitch with volume changes, a bad capacitor in the DAC circuitry and anti-aliasing filter could be causing it. The surround channels could share a DAC channel.

[Pistonbroke]

Appreciate all the advice - i'll be inside it with my MESR-100 this week and post anything i find.. Happy Holidays all