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Silver Member Username: SemNY/CA USA Post Number: 829 Registered: Mar-04 | http://wimp.com/plasmaspeaker/ |
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Gold Member Username: ExerciseguyBrooklyn, NY United States Post Number: 2292 Registered: Oct-04 | ...uh, no. It is pretty wild, I'd like to know the science behind this. |
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Platinum Member Username: NuckPost Number: 11425 Registered: Dec-04 | By the first video, it doesn't seem to clip so well! Very interesting |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 13286 Registered: May-04 | . I've never seen the demonstration performed with nails before but plasma "speakers" have been around for a few decades. There was a commercial system produced that used helium (I believe) as the gas that was energized by the "spark". Very fast as would be expected, no bass as would also be expected so they had a disparity and discontinuity caused by a dynamic driver for the bottom end and the plasma system for the mids and top end. And they were costly to keep running. They were finally taken off the market when it was decided their offgassing byproduct, ozone, was dangerous to breathe. . |
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Platinum Member Username: GlasswolfRaccoon City, MI USA Post Number: 12280 Registered: Dec-03 | seen them yes.. about eight or ten years back. there was a DIY webpage from a guy who built his own plasma/tesla speakers. hugely power hungry and inefficient, not overly loud, but very neat to watch. |
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Platinum Member Username: NuckPost Number: 11426 Registered: Dec-04 | Perhaps a Jacob's ladder would represent an array... |
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Gold Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 3502 Registered: Sep-04 | Plasma drivers were made famous way back in the 50s, I can't remember by whom (isofone?), but they died a death when people got worried about the amount of ozone in the air from the drivers. More recently (about 10 years ago), Max Townshend demoed a wonderful speaker with a plasma tweeter from Switzerland. He claimed that the cleverest part of the design was that the plasma tweeter had a device that burned off all ozone generated by the unit making it safe. I heard this speaker at a show and was blown away by how very clean and clear it was in the treble. In theory, plasma drivers are wonderful things. They have the lowest mass you can dream of since they're made of plasma - an ionised gas, usually helium - so their mass is as low as it gets, making their movement ultra-fast and inertia ultra-low. Thsi is, after all, the premise for electrostatics. use a very thin memberane for minimum mass and you'll get ultra fast response. Plasma just takes it a step further. Unfortunately, it seems stillborn due to the ozone issue, the high cost of production and its inefficiency. |