Plasma speaker

[Kalina2]

http://vigeraudio.livejournal.com/

[Dogoth]

I'm always interested in new technology. The url you pointed us to is in Cyrillic (the drop down that says English still reads Cyrillic (poor web design maybe?)).

 

Thanks anyway. I've heard about these some years ago (still in the R&D phase). Fascinating that someone is making them. Very cool.

[Kalina2]

Arc speaker - Innovative sound emitter, which is intended for use as a high-frequency speaker (tweeter) for speakers (speakers) both domestic and professional use.                                              Virtually all types of traditional acoustic emitters (speaker) audio sources electromechanical oscillations are moving parts - diffusers, membranes, diaphragms, etc., which, by definition, have any weight, and therefore - inertia. This inevitably causes phenomena such as resonance suspension system, the bending vibrations of the diaphragm, slow reaction to the growth and attenuation - hence leads to dynamic distortion and coloring the sound, reduce the width, depth and detail of the sound stage, the appearance of uncharacteristic overtones instruments orchestra and voices.   Arc speaker - a simple and reliable solution, devoid of all the above drawbacks. Its main feature - is that the direct source of the sound vibrations is an electric arc - plasma. Under the influence of the audio signal changes the volume of the electric arc, which leads to the formation of sound vibrations - without any electromechanical parts. The advantages of electric-speaker: 1. The principle of arc and speaker design are innovative and are protected by patent (patent №2496254 RU) 2. Built on the solid components, able to work 24 hours a day in a wide temperature range with an unstable network, does not require special maintenance and replacement of consumable parts. 3. Using an electric arc (which is equal to the molecular weight) as a point source of sound vibrations, thus avoiding various types of distortion, spurious resonances and vibrations, achieve the impossible in traditional loudspeakers sound quality at best transient and amplitude - frequency characteristics, reaching the ultrasonic range. 4. Not afraid to overload (due to the absence of moving parts), that is a big problem for traditional loudspeakers. It is compact and has a low weight 5. It has a relatively low cost, to provide high profitability 6. Easy to manufacture, does not require special technologies and element base 7. Almost all the technical specifications of this product may improve, if necessary, depending on the direction and operating conditions. Currently developed and tested in various conditions and for a time long arc loudspeaker designs of two types:                                                 VA-6          - It is designed for installation in home speaker systems as a high frequency speaker (or external, such as the speaker mounted to the top).                       This model has a number of case decisions do not change the quality indicators. Detailed specifications on the following link: http://www.viger-audio.com/downloadfiles/User%20Manual%20VA6.pdf                                                   VA-5pro                                                    - For cinema halls, clubs, etc. It can be used as part of any acoustic suspension systems (linear arrays) professional designation as a high-frequency component.                                                                            Detailed specifications on the following link: http://www.viger-audio.com/downloadfiles/User%20Manual%20VA5pro.pdf Nearest to the electric-speaker sound on the type of radiation - ionophone using corona discharge as the source of the sound vibrations and operating on the basis of an electron tube. They are produced by firms and Acapella Lanshe Audio, used mainly for domestic loudspeakers above firms and mass are not produced.              These disadvantages include high cost, inability to extreme operating conditions such as unstable network and a large vibration load. Time to the operating mode, the power consumption and the limited lifespan of the lamp and the electrode also do not relate to the merits ionophone. Arc speaker devoid of the above drawbacks because of design features and has no direct analogues in the market sound emitters, because it lacks the mobile system, the frequency response of his uniform, and the frequency range up to ultrasonic frequencies. The market potential of its application is very extensive due to the lack of competition in this segment. It can be used in the studio and home audio systems, professional audio systems for scoring the club halls, concert venues, the potential for its use in automotive acoustics. Qualitative development of traditional loudspeakers is currently in an evolutionary dead end - with their help it is impossible to create a speaker system that has really high precision sound, which may be obtained by using an electric loudspeaker. Site Address: http://www.viger-audio.com/        http://www.viger-audio.ru/

[Kalina2]

Arc speaker - Innovative sound emitter, which is intended for use as a high-frequency speaker (tweeter) for speakers (speakers) both domestic and professional use. Virtually all types of traditional acoustic emitters (speaker) audio sources electromechanical oscillations are moving parts - diffusers, membranes, diaphragms, etc., which, by definition, have any weight, and therefore - inertia. This inevitably causes phenomena such as resonance suspension system, the bending vibrations of the diaphragm, slow reaction to the growth and attenuation - hence leads to dynamic distortion and coloring the sound, reduce the width, depth and detail of the sound stage, the appearance of uncharacteristic overtones instruments orchestra and voices. Arc speaker - a simple and reliable solution, devoid of all the above drawbacks. Its main feature - is that the direct source of the sound vibrations is an electric arc - plasma. Under the influence of the audio signal changes the volume of the electric arc, which leads to the formation of sound vibrations - without any electromechanical parts. The advantages of electric-speaker: 1. The principle of arc and speaker design are innovative and are protected by patent (patent №2496254 RU) 2. Built on the solid components, able to work 24 hours a day in a wide temperature range with an unstable network, does not require special maintenance and replacement of consumable parts. 3. Using an electric arc (which is equal to the molecular weight) as a point source of sound vibrations, thus avoiding various types of distortion, spurious resonances and vibrations, achieve the impossible in traditional loudspeakers sound quality at best transient and amplitude - frequency characteristics, reaching the ultrasonic range. 4. Not afraid to overload (due to the absence of moving parts), that is a big problem for traditional loudspeakers. It is compact and has a low weight 5. It has a relatively low cost, to provide high profitability 6. Easy to manufacture, does not require special technologies and element base 7. Almost all the technical specifications of this product may improve, if necessary, depending on the direction and operating conditions. Currently developed and tested in various conditions and for a time long arc loudspeaker designs of two types: VA-6 - It is designed for installation in home speaker systems as a high frequency speaker (or external, such as the speaker mounted to the top). This model has a number of case decisions do not change the quality indicators. Detailed specifications on the following link: http://www.viger-audio.com/downloadfiles/User%20Manual%20VA6.pdf VA-5pro - For cinema halls, clubs, etc. It can be used as part of any acoustic suspension systems (linear arrays) professional designation as a high-frequency component. Detailed specifications on the following link: http://www.viger-audio.com/downloadfiles/User%20Manual%20VA5pro.pdf Nearest to the electric-speaker sound on the type of radiation - ionophone using corona discharge as the source of the sound vibrations and operating on the basis of an electron tube. They are produced by firms and Acapella Lanshe Audio, used mainly for domestic loudspeakers above firms and mass are not produced. These disadvantages include high cost, inability to extreme operating conditions such as unstable network and a large vibration load. Time to the operating mode, the power consumption and the limited lifespan of the lamp and the electrode also do not relate to the merits ionophone. Arc speaker devoid of the above drawbacks because of design features and has no direct analogues in the market sound emitters, because it lacks the mobile system, the frequency response of his uniform, and the frequency range up to ultrasonic frequencies. The market potential of its application is very extensive due to the lack of competition in this segment. It can be used in the studio and home audio systems, professional audio systems for scoring the club halls, concert venues, the potential for its use in automotive acoustics. Qualitative development of traditional loudspeakers is currently in an evolutionary dead end - with their help it is impossible to create a speaker system that has really high precision sound, which may be obtained by using an electric loudspeaker. Site Address: http://www.viger-audio.com/ http://www.viger-audio.ru/

[Dogoth]

You can't beat a nearly zero mass air mover. You are correct in that inertial mass & resonance of any given driver material are the biggest causes of distortion (speaking free field here - let's leave the enclosure/loading devices out for this discussion ).

 

Years ago I read about a microphone "diaphragm" that was without mass as well. I thought of developing it (if there wasn't already an existing patent) but never had the money or engineering expertise to do so. My thought was to somehow measure the density of the air between two points. As the pressure waves (air is compressible) passed through it would get measured by something like a real time mass spectrometer. I don't know, however, if one is made sensitive, fast and linear enough for this use. Now I'm wondering if the disturbance of a plasma arc might not be a better way (the arc is already electricity, all you have to do is measure the changing resistance or impedance). Once again I'm out of my league when it comes to engineering smarts.

 

From a fertile mind comes many weeds .

 

cheers

[dboomer]

There have been similar devices in the past but they all suffer from very low output.

[Dogoth]

There have been similar devices in the past but they all suffer from very low output.

 

Devices such as a speaker or microphone?

 

If used as a tweeter only, I wouldn't think efficiency would too big of an issue as HF uses little power to start with. Is it that a single device is only capable of a lower SPL output before breaking up? This could be a problem (especially for sound reinforcement) in that using multiple devices to attain higher SPL would never time align properly and cause comb filtering issues (time alignment).

 

As a microphone, it could be a huge issue in that that preamp gain is where most of the noise of a system comes from & really low noise circuitry can be really expensive. I'd think that such a real time measurement device (after all, a microphone is a sophisticated sensitive, fast barometer where the analog telemetry is recorded as an electrical or magnetic waveform representation), if measuring density, would have numerous issues to overcome. 1) it would have to be calibrated to the local current barometric pressure (whereas a diaphragm auto corrects due to the air pressure behind the diaphragm). There would have to be filters to account for particulate matter (a few bits of smoke or dust in the measurement field would make the average density go WAY off the scale causing an overload to the + (high pressure) side). POP!

 

Back to the speakers Kalina2 spoke of (don't want to derail this thread entirely ). What little experience I've had with plasma arcs, they are pretty unstable (think of the stutter and pop of a Jacobs ladder) due to the things I mentioned in the last paragraph. I'm curious how they tamed that arch to create a waveform representative of the electrical input. Something to research I guess.