The plasma volume must be large to produce the lows and the energy required is likewise higher than any plasma driver I know of.
The Hills are dead quiet when idle because the cathode attachment point is stable - Oxygen is kept away by the Helium. My electrodes are thirty eight years old and have never needed cleaning.
The Lansche tweeter is claimed to be capable of 1.5kHz, but they do not mention output level or distortion numbers. The Magnat tweeter could not produce meaningful output below 4kHz so I wonder how they are able to improve on that with a corona discharge of such small volume. Also distortion is proportional to delta T over T (also delta W over W) and the corona is not very hot. The Hills do not generate any Ozone BTW - too hot.
The Hills are dead quiet when idle because the cathode attachment point is stable - Oxygen is kept away by the Helium. My electrodes are thirty eight years old and have never needed cleaning.
The Lansche tweeter is claimed to be capable of 1.5kHz, but they do not mention output level or distortion numbers. The Magnat tweeter could not produce meaningful output below 4kHz so I wonder how they are able to improve on that with a corona discharge of such small volume. Also distortion is proportional to delta T over T (also delta W over W) and the corona is not very hot. The Hills do not generate any Ozone BTW - too hot.
Mark your calendars, I will be giving a presentation titled, "The Hill type I Plasma Speaker: How It Works, and How You Can Hear It for Yourself", at BAF2022 on Sunday afternoon. I will cover the backround of its development by Alan Hill as well. I will be presenting remotely but plan to send a short demo video with good audio.
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Tony, I spoke with Joe the other day and hope to see you at his place soon. I heard Type 1s back in the day on a couple of occasions and am curious to know what you've changed.
Brian, We will see you on the 30th then. You will hopefully be happy with the new electronics.
Indeed. Hearing the Type 1 at Opus One in Pittsburgh back in the day was a rare audio epiphany for me. I about crapped my pants hearing Supertramp 'School' at fairly high volume -- the screaming kids were in the room. The guy who ran the place was kind of crazy but so passionate.
I look forward to meeting you!
I own several vintage ionic loudspeakers in combination with full range (direct driven) ESL's. This is a good combination as the tweeters can be filtered very high (8Khz and up) adding some magic....
BTW no Ozon emission as well as it is contained within the horn.
BTW no Ozon emission as well as it is contained within the horn.
Tony, it's good to see your presentation at BAF has been posted.
https://burningampfestival.com/videos/
Brian
https://burningampfestival.com/videos/
Brian
Thanks Brian. It went about as well as I expected.
And a big thank you for donating to my GoFundMe to pay the fees for showing the speakers at AXPONA next Spring! The below set up is as you saw (and heard) it at Superior Audio on October 31st. This paring of the plasma tweeters with the Eminent Technology LFT-8b speakers was a very pleasant experience and this is what will be demo'ed at AXPONA 2023.
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My Analysis Audio Amphytrions are like Apogee's, although a bit easier to drive. Bybee devices were installed in the crossovers and Bybee speaker bullets put on the speaker cables between crossovers and panels. http://analysisaudio.com
I mention them because I may be acquiring a pair of Hills in the coming months with the idea of using the tweeters with them, much in the same way as demonstrated with the ET speakers.
Hey everyone, I have been fantasizing about buiding a replica of the plasmatronics for years. I watched the BAF2022 lecture by Tony Salsich, and I am super interested in the electronics used to drive the plasma. Would you consider sharing your schematics,Tony?
I am not ready to share the schematics at this point for a number of reasons.
The power supplies are difficult to build and generate lethal voltage levels; all of the magnetic elements are custom; the transformer secondary requires rather expensive triple insulated wire; a helium flow meter and other gas support parts are needed.
I already had the drivers so I didn't have to source those materials (the Nickel tubing for the electrodes is difficult to procure). I am a power electronics engineer and have worked on this for years (in my spare time of course) it was a challenging project despite my working for Alan for all those years.
What I am saying is that this is a high risk and expensive project to take on.
FWIW the topology is LLCC.
The power supplies are difficult to build and generate lethal voltage levels; all of the magnetic elements are custom; the transformer secondary requires rather expensive triple insulated wire; a helium flow meter and other gas support parts are needed.
I already had the drivers so I didn't have to source those materials (the Nickel tubing for the electrodes is difficult to procure). I am a power electronics engineer and have worked on this for years (in my spare time of course) it was a challenging project despite my working for Alan for all those years.
What I am saying is that this is a high risk and expensive project to take on.
FWIW the topology is LLCC.
In this case you can wind your own transformers and resonant coils to specification. I did some experiments with a quadrature power source and high voltage windings with good results (after some failures).Diode bridge stacking and voltage doublers keep capacitance low etc.
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That is some impressive bread boarding.
I also wound my own, but not on torroids. My inductor is a PQ35 with three small gaps, and th etransformer is a PQ5050 with a full bobbin of Rubadue #36AWG Tefzel. I bought a rather ancient looking (but new) hand-cranked coil winder on Amazon. It is a casting that looks like it was designed 60 years ago.
I also wound my own, but not on torroids. My inductor is a PQ35 with three small gaps, and th etransformer is a PQ5050 with a full bobbin of Rubadue #36AWG Tefzel. I bought a rather ancient looking (but new) hand-cranked coil winder on Amazon. It is a casting that looks like it was designed 60 years ago.
Tony -
Do you still plan on attending AXPONA? If so, under what name, I'd like to hear these amazing speakers.
Do you still plan on attending AXPONA? If so, under what name, I'd like to hear these amazing speakers.
Had no idea this thread was here.
DIYAudio is a vast universe.
What you have done and are doing is beyond simply being impressive.
Thanks for doing it and continuing to do it.
Really enjoyed your video about AXPONA.
DIYAudio is a vast universe.
What you have done and are doing is beyond simply being impressive.
Thanks for doing it and continuing to do it.
Really enjoyed your video about AXPONA.