Fair enough 
The extra panels seem like a good idea, I was planning on having a grill cloth anyway.
I've got a nice set of brackets and frame parts to be milled out of some nice wood. Will order the pref panels soon, need to make a stretching table now and find a way of bending the stators into a curve without buying more equipment. My girlfriend already complains our bedroom looks like a workshop, I don't know what she's talking about, it's just the standard student accommodation
The extra panels seem like a good idea, I was planning on having a grill cloth anyway.
I've got a nice set of brackets and frame parts to be milled out of some nice wood. Will order the pref panels soon, need to make a stretching table now and find a way of bending the stators into a curve without buying more equipment. My girlfriend already complains our bedroom looks like a workshop, I don't know what she's talking about, it's just the standard student accommodation
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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I have to warn you, though, that electrostatic speakers won't blow the windows out but they will blow women's panties right off (this I have confirmed but my girlfriend says that could happen anyway)
Unfortunately, guys' boxers too
haha xD. I most certainly plan to keep my boxers on... But depending on what she thinks of the speakers I may have no choice .
In the hope of not wondering too much further off topic than already has been achieved, I need to find a way of consolidating my work area. Plan to buy a bench saw to make the side braces for the panels. They will be 1m long stips of wood with an appropriate grove cut in them for the ESL panels to fit snug into. Some milled out wood end braces will go either end. Anyone know any affordable bench saws? obvious need for it to be smallish.
.In the hope of not wondering too much further off topic than already has been achieved, I need to find a way of consolidating my work area. Plan to buy a bench saw to make the side braces for the panels. They will be 1m long stips of wood with an appropriate grove cut in them for the ESL panels to fit snug into. Some milled out wood end braces will go either end. Anyone know any affordable bench saws? obvious need for it to be smallish.
Hi,
whooaaa is it hangin´ that loose?
You might think about metal frames too. There are some nice aluminium profiles around which doesn´t cost much and need just a minimum of machining. Wooden frames may be a bit too flimsy or voluminous.
As Alex suggested call companies and speak to them. Or ask them directly by visiting or attanding to fairs. It helps alot if You have a personal contact.
My experience is, that as soon as it is realized that You´re into something special, they become very helpful with knowledge and help. And even if they can´t help they might give You the right hint to a company or person that could. I remember Years ago when I wanted to build me a turntable and searched for parts. A company producing technical ceramics gave me ceramic balls and rods with the words: "Oh, we like Young enterprising men.." I got the unmachined parts of the aluminium platter, the steel block for the bearing housing, the bronze bearing sleeves, etc. I even got titanium rods and the accompanying plastic for a special bearing construction .. worth more than 1500€.
Carpenter´s shops or locksmitheries are sometimes very helpful too, or if You know them better let You use their machinery. The results working with professional tools are usually better and You don´t soil Your living room.
So don´t be shy to ask.
jauu
Calvin
whooaaa is it hangin´ that loose?
You might think about metal frames too. There are some nice aluminium profiles around which doesn´t cost much and need just a minimum of machining. Wooden frames may be a bit too flimsy or voluminous.
As Alex suggested call companies and speak to them. Or ask them directly by visiting or attanding to fairs. It helps alot if You have a personal contact.
My experience is, that as soon as it is realized that You´re into something special, they become very helpful with knowledge and help. And even if they can´t help they might give You the right hint to a company or person that could. I remember Years ago when I wanted to build me a turntable and searched for parts. A company producing technical ceramics gave me ceramic balls and rods with the words: "Oh, we like Young enterprising men.." I got the unmachined parts of the aluminium platter, the steel block for the bearing housing, the bronze bearing sleeves, etc. I even got titanium rods and the accompanying plastic for a special bearing construction .. worth more than 1500€.
Carpenter´s shops or locksmitheries are sometimes very helpful too, or if You know them better let You use their machinery. The results working with professional tools are usually better and You don´t soil Your living room.
So don´t be shy to ask.
jauu
Calvin
Ok, safety concerns are always present but really it's not safe to stick your fingers in the wall socket either and most people manage to avoid doing that.
Information and common sense usually wins out...
It would be nice to discuss the frame though.
How do you build a nice slender frame that looks good and does the jobb?
Information and common sense usually wins out...
It would be nice to discuss the frame though.
How do you build a nice slender frame that looks good and does the jobb?
For stretching the diaphragm and gluing it to the stators, you could unmount an interior door from your apartment. A painted door will normally give the required flatness and smoothness for doing this work, and plastic tape sticks well to it. It saves the trouble of buying a laminated work surface and storing it afterwards.
Thanks for the tip Calvin, I may poke around some a woodworking shops nearby, I've spoken to the guy and he seems very helpful. I'm trying to get permission to pop into the workshops at uni. Complicated as hell to find the right person to ask, and their usually quite grumpy. The department website says undergrads are strictly forbidden to use the workshops without training.
I've got some autocad models of the speakers rendering right now, will post in a bit. Let me know what you guys think. I think the curvature of the stators will add to the stiffness of the whole thing. I'll try use a nice and hard wood to hold everything together.
The method of using a door wont work with curved stators would it? I would have thought some curved surface would be needed. I plan to use some double sided foam tape to hold everything together.
I've got some autocad models of the speakers rendering right now, will post in a bit. Let me know what you guys think. I think the curvature of the stators will add to the stiffness of the whole thing. I'll try use a nice and hard wood to hold everything together.
The method of using a door wont work with curved stators would it? I would have thought some curved surface would be needed. I plan to use some double sided foam tape to hold everything together.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
This is what they'll look like, notoriously similar to MLs. As you can see, there's a groove on the wood parts that the ESL panel fits into. Only the top panel is the ESL. The bottom panel that covers the woofer isn't connected to anything. The middle brace you see in the second two images (that separate the top and bottom pref panels) are actually two braces stuck back to back. This way the top, bottom and middle two braces are identical and easy to machine. The long side braces will be strips of wood with a groove cut for the panel and will be screwed to the end braces.
The spacers are placed arbitrarily at the moment. How would I figure out where these should go? Again they will just be some foam tape.
By the way, the perf sheets wont actually look like that, my autocad only had that kind of pref metal texture for the render. It'll be the 60 degree round hole stuff.
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Latest Janszen flagship ESL has sealed rear chamber, mono-pole . Cross over to E/S panel is a high 225 hz (making backwave enclosure possible?) below 300 is cone woofer. Gets rave review for mid range sound.
SoundStageAV.com "OnHiFi" Equipment Review -- JansZen Model One Loudspeakers (12/2007)
SoundStageAV.com "OnHiFi" Equipment Review -- JansZen Model One Loudspeakers (12/2007)
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They seem pretty funky. The design seems a bit to elaborate for a first time ESL Builder. I've put a spreadsheet together of parts required for a pair of the speakers I plan to build. It comes up to around £460. Not bad remembering these will be fully active speakers. The electronics make up about £200 of that.
I picked up a nice Skytronic 8 inch woofer yesterday from a local electronics store. Cheap £20 kevlar cone woofer that should serve as a nice testing driver until I can afford/find better matched woofers.
I'm still planning on having the woofer in a sealed box, but most the ESL designs I see have ported enclosures or passive radiator. Am I better off porting my design? My current open baffle set up puts a lot of strain on the subwoofer crossing over at 70Hz, the bass is sometimes directional due to the shape of the room, I have little choice on where I can place it.
I picked up a nice Skytronic 8 inch woofer yesterday from a local electronics store. Cheap £20 kevlar cone woofer that should serve as a nice testing driver until I can afford/find better matched woofers.
I'm still planning on having the woofer in a sealed box, but most the ESL designs I see have ported enclosures or passive radiator. Am I better off porting my design? My current open baffle set up puts a lot of strain on the subwoofer crossing over at 70Hz, the bass is sometimes directional due to the shape of the room, I have little choice on where I can place it.
I think I've come up with a student method of stretching the mylar and sticking the stators to it. The film will be weighted all round over the bottom stator so it can hold a curved shape. The top stator will be placed over it with sticky foam exposed and pressed from inside -> out of the mylar. The film then trimmed, foam applied to rear stator and then that will be positioned and pressed on. Hopefully one creased free action if the weighting is correct.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I was planning on having many more sugar bags going all the way round. Here the guy says he's used a pull scale stuck to the mylar to tension 2.5kg and tape down the film as he goes round. I was thinking of just hanging lots of 2kg measured bags of something and clip them symmetrically all the way round until the creases are gone.
https://sites.google.com/site/eslarray/home/project-history
https://sites.google.com/site/eslarray/home/project-history
As Calvin points out, you won't be getting any sweet tones from your ESL if you stretch the diaphragm over the curve as shown in your sketch. ANY tension in the direction of curvature will pull the diaphragm toward the rear stator (and you want the diaphragm centered). You want only enough tension across the curve to pull the wrinkles out and no more. Assuming your panel will be curved in the width dimension, you want to apply all tension in the length direction ONLY.
Good luck with your project!
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Oh right, I didn't realise that the tension would need to only be vertical. I may just put together the curved table as shown in this:
https://7677657343390510175-a-18027...TZHMy9ZLSBUkZQYY9HoOHoqIsEYobn&attredirects=0
https://7677657343390510175-a-18027...TZHMy9ZLSBUkZQYY9HoOHoqIsEYobn&attredirects=0
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