[Jazzman53]

Hi all,
It looks like my latest DIY electrostats are to be featured in the September issue of AudioXpress magazine 

Here's a short cellphone vid of them playing at the 2016 Carverfest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXL4NsMtpYk
 

[Blackmore]

Congratulations!!!!

[rajacat]

I can actually hear the extraordinary transparency of your speakers via youtube. 
Congratulations on the publication of your article. 

[SteveFord]

We're still waiting for you to go into production...

[WireNut]

Wow, this is awesome news. Congratulations.

[Jazzman53]

We're still waiting for you to go into production...

I would surely starve if I had to build speakers for a living.

[Audiophile58]

How much time, and money's went into building them  ?
I have owned most speakers out there MLB 111, still on my favorite list when I win the lottery.
I bought the New Martin Logan 11-A  Loudspeaker.this being the least expensive in their Powered
subwoofers in the masterpiece series.usjng 24 bit DPS,  and dual opposing powered subs per speaker
With Anthem room correction  gives a totally seamless presentation. I bought these for I feel this series
Compete against anything at 2x the cost  in balance across the board.
The stats in the link above look very nice.  These were not available for sale when I purchased mine
But look very well constructed.. where are you located ?  Will you be selling these  starting out
A few at s time like Vapor Loudspeakers just more efficient  would be very  good . Please elaborate
A bit on your design, efficiency,and frequency response., powered ,and or passive subs ?

[Jazzman53]

How much time, and money's went into building them  ?
 Please elaborate a bit on your design, efficiency,and frequency response., powered ,and or passive subs ?

Hi Audiophile58,

Material cost for the pair, digital crossover included but not the amps, is about $1,300.  Time-wise I spent about 7 or 8 weeks of evenings and weekends.  The beam splitter bass cabs were the lions share of the work.  Believe it or not the most difficult item to design was the wire stretching jig.  In comparison to the cabinets, building the stat panels and power supplies was the easy part and went much faster.

I have no plans to build speakers for sale though.  If I did, I would have to re-design something easier/faster to build, as my current speaker would not be commercially viable (it takes a hand truck to move one-- shipping alone would be horrendous).

I do use Ripole subs and the system is tri-amplified.   Absent the subs the speakers would play down to 22Hz and top out at 20Khz.  Adding the subs unloaded the mid bass woofers a bit and let the system REALLY ROCK.  The panels would play above 20kHz except the digital crossover chops off the output sharply at 20K.   

I haven't measured the efficiency but the panels are optimized for high output (ideal wire size, wire spacing, minimal diaphragm to stator gaps) so should be quite good for an ESL --comparable to a hybrid model ML I suspect.
 
Complete build photos, parts list, schematics, etc.. are shown here: http://jazzman-esl-page.blogspot.com 

     

[Davey]

Excellent news, Jazzman.
Your project is the type of thing that should be featured much more prominently in the Audio press.

Dave.

[Jazzman53]

The September 2017 online edition of AudioXpress magazine, containing my speaker article, came out today. I was a little disappointed that my speaker wasn't on the cover (commercial speakers won out there) but they did a very nice 8-page layout of my speaker article inside.
Below are the cover and the first page of my article:

[WireNut]

Hi Jazzman53,

Is that issue available online for download or can you add a PDF link 

[Jazzman53]

Hi Jazzman53,

Is that issue available online for download or can you add a PDF link 

It's available for download or print copy from the AudioXpress website but you'd have a buy a 1-year minimum subscription to get it.  I don't have a subscription myself but they're sending me a courtesy print copy.  The cover screenshot I pulled from their website.  I do have a PDF of my author's proof but I can't post it because the article now legally belongs to AudioXpress.  I can tell you though that practically every paragraph and all photos in the article were copied and pasted verbatim from my website (http://jazzman-esl-page.blogspot.com/).  So, if you've read my website, then you've essentially read the article; although the article layout is much prettier.   

[WireNut]

Thanks, I've got your website bookmarked. Micro center down the road from me carries AudioExpress, I'll call and see if they have September. 

[Jimf42]

Very nice work. I cannot tell over youtube, but they appear very well constructed!  Congratulations

[Jazzman53]

Thank you all,
The new segmented wire panels are the culmination of a nine year journey through multiple design iterations and I believe they are the current state of the art. 

And I can’t tell you how rewarding it is when I get an email from someone on the other side of the world who built their own ESLs using my website as a guide and they rave about how great they sound—because I KNOW what the effort and the result meant to them.

Charlie   

[josh358]

Just superb. Wish there were a way to do it without that wire stretching jig, though!

Anyway, congratulations on the article.

[Jazzman53]

Just superb. Wish there were a way to do it without that wire stretching jig, though!

Anyway, congratulations on the article.

Actually, stretching the wires is not an absolute requirement but it does produce straighter wires and tighter tolerances for the diaphragm to stator gaps.   

[josh358]

What about the welding rod? Arcing problems?

[Jazzman53]

I never had any arcing problems with the welding rod panels at the biasing and stator voltages I was using (2.7kV bias voltage and 76:1 step up transformers). 

There were 3 mitigating factors:  1) the welding rods being round have no sharp edges to focus the corona, 2) the rods were over coated with 6-8 mils of clear coat polyurethane and 3) the diaphragm coating had quite high resistance (E7-E9) which restrained charge migration across the diaphragm (whereas a low resistance coating like graphite would permit rapid charge migration to areas of closest proximity to the stators at any given time).     

[josh358]

Why did you go to the stretched wire, then? Wasn't the welding rod easier to use?