Electrostatic Advantages
How can sound be reproduced by something that you are able to see through? Electrostatic energy makes this possible.
Where the world of traditional loudspeaker technology deals with cones, domes, diaphragms and ribbons that are moved with magnetism, the world of electrostatic loudspeakers deals with charged electrons attracting and repelling each other.
To fully understand the electrostatic concept, some back- ground information will be helpful. Remember when you learned in a science or physics class that like charges repel each other and opposite charges attract each other? Well, this principle is the foundation of the electrostatic concept.
An electrostatic transducer consists of three pieces: stators, the diaphragm and spacers (see figure 14). The diaphragm is what actually moves to excite the air and create music. The stator’s job is to remain stationary, hence the word stator, and to provide a reference point for the moving diaphragm. The spacers provide the diaphragm with a fixed distance in which to move between the stators.
As your amplifier sends music signals to an electrostatic speaker, these signals are changed into two
Since the diaphragm of an electrostatic speaker is uniform- ly driven over its entire area, it can be extremely light and flexible. This allows it to be very responsive to transients, thus perfectly tracing the music signal. As a result, great delicacy, nuance and clarity is possible. When you look at the problems of traditional electromagnetic drivers, you can easily see why this is so beneficial. The cones and domes which are used in traditional electromagnetic driv- ers cannot be driven uniformly because of their design. Cones are driven only at the apex. Domes are driven at their perimeter. As a result, the rest of the cone or dome is just “along for the ride”. The very concept of these drivers requires that the cone or dome be perfectly rigid, damped and massless. Unfortunately, these conditions are not available in our world today.
To make these cones and domes move, all electromagnet- ic drivers must use voice coils wound on formers, spider assemblies, and surrounds to keep the cone or dome in position (see figure 15). These pieces, when combined with the high mass of the cone or dome materials used, make it an extremely complex unit with many weaknesses and potential for failure. These faults contribute to the high distortion products found in these drivers and is a tremendous disadvantage when you are trying to change motion as quickly and as accurately as a loudspeaker must (40,000 times per second!).