genaric questions post.

[branboom]

Hi, so i stumbled onto this DIY ESL stuff while looking for a way to adapt my monsoon panels into my Yamaha hs-50m/hs-10w system to bring up the high end. And have come to the conclusion that i need to make a ESL panel. I am looking for a tweeter but if its goes into the mids i think thats fine too.

My plan as it stands its to make a panel to serve as a center channel at my comp desk that is 5"x40" hanging just above my monitor. (starting small)

so that said, i have some questions:

1) Does the coating on the membrane cover both sides, does it matter?

2) I was thinking about 1/16th membrane/stator spacing, is that fine?

3) i think i will need supports for the membrane across the width, do I? how can i figure out how many?

4) I have not gone into the coating type much thought, but graphite sounds like an easy answer. Am i shooting my self in the foot?

5) http://www.audiocircuit.com has Hostaphan RE 6. Width 795 mm, 6 micron, 10 meter for € 26, should i look locally, i'm in vancouver, its a pretty big city.

6)How can i figure out my power req for X panel.

i think thats it,

Thanks in advance
- Branboom

[SY]

1. Doesn't have to and no real advantage to two sided coating.
2. For tweeter use, that's fine as long as you have thought through spacing tolerances.
4. Graphite is popular and easy, but I'm more of an advocate of carbon-black-loaded inks.
5. I don't know the supply situation in Vansterdam, but around here, 6 mil is tough to find. Call around to a few plastic supply houses (locally, we have a chain called TAP Plastics which has a pretty wide stock).

[j beede]

The TAP plastics website lists only 2 mil and 5 mil mylar--have they supplied thinner mylar in the past?
,,,j

[ak_47_boy]

1/8mil = 3 micron - used for small tweeters, possibly better than 6 micron for extremely high frequency's because it is lighter. However it has less tensile strength and can't achieve good bass output.
1/4mil = 6 micron - good all round.
1/2mil = 12 micron - good for large bass panels but it starts to roll off at higher frequency's because it is heavy. It is good for low frequency's because it is so strong and you can put it under high tension.

I would personally use 6 micron (1/4 mil). It seams to be the perfect point between tension and weight.

[SY]

j, I don't know. I get my plastics direct because of professional connections, but have used TAP now and then when I needed something fast. It's disappointing that TAP doesn't have the thin films.

Another possible spot to try is companies that sell to the RC airplane constructor market. They advertise some very thin films.

[branboom]

"2. For tweeter use, that's fine as long as you have thought through spacing tolerances." i'm not sure what you mean, are you talking about variations in the insulating material? The "flex" of the membrane?

"4. Graphite is popular and easy, but I'm more of an advocate of carbon-black-loaded inks." I have seen a lot of people say graphite is not ideal for this application, that the particles fall off or possibly migrate, from what i understand anyways.
What kind of life span are we talking about? has anyone that has built an ESL using graphite have experience with this degradation? what kind of effect does it have on performance, loss of volume, distortion, Dmg to the membrane?

SY, you said you pref inks, do you have a product (name) that as worked well for you in the past?

[Steve M]

ESL whole speaker kits, mylar, transformers, rectifiers and coatings can be obtained here:

www.eraudio.com.au

I run an ESL-3 loudspeaker from ER Audio, excellent dynamics and detail retrieval from 3.4 micron membrane, subwoofer needed for low bass though.

Regards,

Steve M.