Electrostatic Speakers
Society's New Way of Listening To Music
By: Sherry Zhang
History
The Electrostatic speaker has a long history. It first started out with Thomas Edison when he designed the phonograph in 1880. Thanks to Thomas Edison, other people started designing other speaker parts and in the end as technology improved, the electrostatic speaker was born in 1920.
What Is It?
Electrostatic speakers are a new type of speakers containing electrically conductive grids and super thin, large surface area diaphragm which was placed in between the grids. There are also spars that are between the diaphragm and the grids to prevent the diaphragm from vibrating too far. It has great clarity that is better than many other speakers. Due to these great upsides, the electrostatic speakers are rather costly. These speakers vibrate a large amount of air using the diaphragm. This create the musical sound we hear and the conductive grids that surround the diaphragm allows the music to be very clear. There is a positively conductive grid and a negatively conductive grid. When the diaphragm is positively charged, it would move closer to the negatively conductive grid. When the diaphragm is negatively charged, it would move closer to the positively charged grid. As sound plays through the speaker, the diaphragm would vibrate back and forth changing charges rapidly.
Electrostatic Speakers
Inside the Electrostatic Speaker
Electrostatic Speaker Design
Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) Technology - MartinLogan
Resources
Guttenberg, Steve. " Electrostatic speakers: A very different way to make sound." . CNET, 10 Mar 2011. Web. 7 Feb 2013. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20041223-47.html
Logan, Martin. "Electrostatic Loudspeaker History." . Martin Logan. Web. 14 Feb 2013. http://www.martinlogan.com/learn/electrostatic-loudspeaker-history.php
Logan, Martin, dir. Electrostatic Speakers (ESL) Technology. 2011. Film. 14 Feb 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGhFYSk4zJI&feature=player_embedded
Thomas, Brian. "Electrostatic Speakers." . Top Ten Reviews, n.d. Web. 8 Feb 2013. http://tv.toptenreviews.com/flat-panel/lcd/electrostatic-speakers.htm