To ESL or to Ribbon?

[a.wayne]

On review, my post may seem a little harsh. This was not my intention (maybe has to do with a serious hangover after the Dutch football celebration last night 🙂

😀 yes i can believe that .........................

 

[torroid88]

Stat or Ribbon ?

Professor Hunt of Harvard wrote a Monograph called "ElectroAcoustics". Although published in 1954 and may be somewhat dated, he describes the major types of transducers - dynamic, ribbon, and electrostatic. After a thorough analysis, he comes out for the 'Stat - practically jumping up and down over the advantages of making a CONSTANT CHARGE, PUSH PULL ELECTROSTATIC. It was the Book attributed to launching the QUAD Electrostatic Loudspeaker in England, by Peter Walker.

 

[CharlieM]

I'm interested in building my own planars -- but have not decided on which direction.

Do I opt for the simplicity of ribbon - but as someone pointed out - huge magnetic expense

Or the complexity of ESL and the refined design aspects to think about to get it right - but with comparitively less expense.

I was hoping to find a hi-fi review that pitched ESL's up against Ribbon to see the varying differences on paper.

Howdy PhaseLock,
DIY ESL's don't have to be complex or expensive... even the simplist designs can sound fantastic. A non-segmented flat panel hybrid might be best for a first time builder, as the curved panels are more difficult to build properly. Flat or curved, both sound wonderful. I could go either way, personally, but the flat panels are easy to build and I like their sound immensely. The downside to a flat panel is it's miniscule sweetspot (useless for parties unless your guests are sitting in your lap) -- but if you can live with that, the imaging is magical indeed.

 

[JAMESBOS]

Planars are easier to build than ESL's I have built about 20 pairs in the last year. You learn as you go along which is the best for sensitivity, sound, distortion etc. My final size is 60 x 40 cms, weight 5 kilos.These can be hung from the ceiling put on the wall, disguised as a picture. Which would help to keep the wife happy. Although I don't have that problem being single.I have built push pulls, but they didn't show any improvement.The best improvement is the weight of the membrane, the lighter the better. Also using stronger magnets would help but the cost soon rises. This I have not tried yet.Cutting the 9 mm alu tape into 4 would help but would be very difficult for someone of my age.