I was reading the May 1983 issue of Audio Magazine and came across this article about Nelson Pass and his "Ion Cloud Speaker". Pretty interesting stuff!!! Sounds like it was "not quite ready for prime time", as you'll see from the article, but, I wonder if anything ever became of it.
Ionic Speaker: Anyone Know Anything About This???
- Thread starter vintagestereo
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harhau
Member of Al-gebra
Nelson Pass is the man! I can't help you with info on the ionic speakers. Why not post your question in the Pass Labs section of www.diyaudio.com? You may get the answer directly from the horse's mouth, that is Nelson hmself. Look at Nelson Pass' latest speaker project, the Klein horn[url].
Thanks for the magazine scan.
- Harald
Thanks for the magazine scan.
- Harald
Toasted Almond
RIP 1952-2016
One of those guys, either Pass or Besne, was demonstrating a pair of speakers called Plasmatrons at a show once, and created so much ozone they knocked themselves out and needed medical attention. Great demo.
mhardy6647
Lunatic Member
The original plasma tweeters were the DuKane Ionovacs (and also a German plasma tweeter -- I don't recall which came first) in the 1950's. Doc Bottlehead had a thread or two on them at his forum. There was also an artical on refurbishing these tweeters in audioXpress magazine in the last year or two. There are many, many websites with info (including parts/restoration info) on the Ionovacs as well as several websites on DIY plasma tweeters. A fantastic but slightly scary concept!
The Hill plasmatronic speakers used helium to generate the plasma.
The Hill plasmatronic speakers used helium to generate the plasma.
One modern speaker line that makes use of a plasma-ion tweeter (along with horn-loaded Dynaudio dome midranges) is the Acapella line from Germany.
I've only heard one of their models, the Violon, which retailed in the EUR20k neighborhood. That treble was the sweetest I've ever heard, and the mids matched it well. However, the bass section was a mess, a ghastly peaky ported thing that oozed group delay and added 50lbs right to the middle of every singer they encountered. (Currently hunting for moderately efficient woofer that can still do bass well enough to integrate with a subwoofer, I sympathize a lot more than I did when I heard them in 2002...) However, the current iteration uses a sealed woofer bin, so perhaps it's much improved from when I heard it.
(I've nothing against ported systems in general, especially "EBS" ones. I find bad ported speakers really awful, though.)
I've only heard one of their models, the Violon, which retailed in the EUR20k neighborhood. That treble was the sweetest I've ever heard, and the mids matched it well. However, the bass section was a mess, a ghastly peaky ported thing that oozed group delay and added 50lbs right to the middle of every singer they encountered. (Currently hunting for moderately efficient woofer that can still do bass well enough to integrate with a subwoofer, I sympathize a lot more than I did when I heard them in 2002...) However, the current iteration uses a sealed woofer bin, so perhaps it's much improved from when I heard it.
(I've nothing against ported systems in general, especially "EBS" ones. I find bad ported speakers really awful, though.)
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