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Speaker Porn


Hopstretch

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Didnt Nelson start out designing speakers? Either way, those are, IMO, some of the sexiest speakers I have ever seen.

Yeah, he worked for ESS from 1972 through 1973 :D and Ion Cloud is very cool.

nelson_601.jpg

Here is what Pass said about them in a post at DIY audio:

The "ion cloud loudspeaker" used photocopy

machine ionizing nichrome wire strung in a flat

array a bit like a window screen, but with more

space between the wires, and charged to a variable

DC potential of about 10 KV.

This screen developed a layer of ionized air, and was

enclosed between two stators, much like an electrostatic

speaker, except that instead of a charged plastic diaphragm,

you had a charged semi-flat layer of gas, and you could

push-pull it with high AC voltages on the stators.

It worked fairly well, and gave new meaning to the word

"transparency".

It also had several flaws, one of which did result in a

trip to the local emergency room with breathing problems

similar to those sometimes experienced by arc welders and

caused by extended exposure to ozone.

The Wall Street Journal printed my comment:

"It was the perfect high end audio product: Exotic, inefficient,

expensive, unavailable, and toxic."

:P
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"...It took several kilowatts to get any sound out of it...It drew so much power at the display at CES that every time there was a loud passage or a transient, the AC line would drop. The tension arms on the tape deck would go slack, the sound would stop, the power would go back up, and it would start again; then the power would go, and it went into an oscillatory loop which included every element of the chain, including the AC line and the tensioning arms on the tape deck. We had a lot of fun doing that—a good demonstration of how much power it required. Fabulous device, but it put out ozone, and after some extensive exposure to the ozone I found myself lacking oxygen in my bloodstream...It was a year before I could go near a copy machine..."

Yeezh.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The garage I can't help you with but nobody starts out knowing how to do DIY. There are many paths to it, but probably nothing beats just doing it and learning from your mistakes. There are lots of resources on the web and probably there are local adult ed classes that will help.

Note that I can't do DIY either, but I'm starting by making my first mistakes on the Discrete Single Ended JFET Amp group build. :P

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