Hi all,
I was wondering how many of you leave the ESL diaphram constantly charged and how many power it up every time you listen. In the past I have left mine charged, but I'm more concerned once I rebuild that my cat may decide to use the panels as scratching posts while I'm gone. Also a healthy dose of paranoia that I shouldn't leave diy stuff plugged in when I'm not around.
My problem is that I have 100 Mohm resistors in line with the diaphram so it takes quite awhile to fully charge (I'm guessing ~1hr). Can I safely decrease this value and cut down charging time? Also, is there any inherent advantage to leaving the panels charged (i.e. is repeatedly charging/discharging bad for the diaphrams?). I'm using perforated metal stators with mylar and coating from ER audio. I forget the exact description.
Thanks for your input,
WRL
I was wondering how many of you leave the ESL diaphram constantly charged and how many power it up every time you listen. In the past I have left mine charged, but I'm more concerned once I rebuild that my cat may decide to use the panels as scratching posts while I'm gone. Also a healthy dose of paranoia that I shouldn't leave diy stuff plugged in when I'm not around.
My problem is that I have 100 Mohm resistors in line with the diaphram so it takes quite awhile to fully charge (I'm guessing ~1hr). Can I safely decrease this value and cut down charging time? Also, is there any inherent advantage to leaving the panels charged (i.e. is repeatedly charging/discharging bad for the diaphrams?). I'm using perforated metal stators with mylar and coating from ER audio. I forget the exact description.
Thanks for your input,
WRL
I leave mine permanently on (Quad ESL 57). It takes several hours to charge, they reach full performance after one day.
A hint: try a miniature neon lamp instead of the resistor. It has low resistance when the voltage difference between the diaphragm and the voltage source is higher than about 80V, but it has infinite resistance at low voltage difference, when the diaphragm is nearly fully charged. It does drop charging while maintaining infinite load resistance. It charges more quickly, and an added bonus: you can visually detect any leakege (then it charges permanently, and the neon is glowing or blinking).
A hint: try a miniature neon lamp instead of the resistor. It has low resistance when the voltage difference between the diaphragm and the voltage source is higher than about 80V, but it has infinite resistance at low voltage difference, when the diaphragm is nearly fully charged. It does drop charging while maintaining infinite load resistance. It charges more quickly, and an added bonus: you can visually detect any leakege (then it charges permanently, and the neon is glowing or blinking).
wrl said:
Even a very large panel (say 2nF capacitance) will charge in < 1 second through 100 Mohm. So decreasing that resistor will not make any difference, when they take an hour the problem is in your membrame coating or in the connecting between membrame and HV-unit.
My ESL's reach full charge in a matter of seconds through 66 Mohm (using the EC coating from MJ Dijkstra). I always switch them off when not in use, to extent life span and it makes me sleep better 😀
On.
Definitely on.
No good reason why that should be.
As the previous poster said, they would seem to be fully charged and functional reasonably quickly.
However they do not seem to work quite like that to the ears.
_-_-bear
Definitely on.
No good reason why that should be.
As the previous poster said, they would seem to be fully charged and functional reasonably quickly.
However they do not seem to work quite like that to the ears.
_-_-bear
Hi,
usually the charging time is much lower than 1 minute, which would mean that You´d better switch off the ESL for energy, ageing, dust and dirt attraction and safety reasons.
On the other hand I feel that sounds improve with my panels over a period of ~2-3 hours. The effect isn´t dramatic and it might be illusionary or a matter of ´learning´, but since others report on the same effect, there might be something to it. This would imply to leave the speaker always on.
I switch it off, because the above named effect is really small and I don´t like to have many devices idling in a standby mode for basically no good reason.
jauu
Calvin
usually the charging time is much lower than 1 minute, which would mean that You´d better switch off the ESL for energy, ageing, dust and dirt attraction and safety reasons.
On the other hand I feel that sounds improve with my panels over a period of ~2-3 hours. The effect isn´t dramatic and it might be illusionary or a matter of ´learning´, but since others report on the same effect, there might be something to it. This would imply to leave the speaker always on.
I switch it off, because the above named effect is really small and I don´t like to have many devices idling in a standby mode for basically no good reason.
jauu
Calvin
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