Plasma Arc Speaker MKII

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

Absolutely! It was a pleasure meeting you. Thanks for coming out.

[@highvoltagefeathers]

The plasma is the tweeter, it is making most of the sound, which is pretty cool.

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

By very quickly changing the temperature of the arc, It modulates the density of the air around it... causing it to vibrate with the music!

[@TheCallMeCrazy]

The plasma arc on top is the HF driver, not just a visual thing. In the part where he says he's turning the tub off, that arc is what continues to make noise.

[@The1wsx10]

doesn't the anode oxidize over time? so you would want to have a platinum or iridium plated electrode for that one wouldn't you? like 100 micron plating should do it

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

It's tungsten carbide. It holds up quite well. There is a bit of pitting after long periods of use, but nothing crazy. I made it so it's pretty easy to replace the electrodes if they get too bad.

[@Jacob-Sampson]

Very cool. Is it possible to create one of these for 100 hertz and down?

[@1RTAZZER]

So.... It just shows a plasma current ?? What's so amazing ?? I'm lost info please ?

[@BH4x0r]

hmm still quite a bit distortion for a TL494 circuit, with some improvements in the schematic that can be removed though

[@tugbars4690]

playing Autechre through plasma speakers. Boy, that was cool.

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

Thanks Fam!

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

It's actually not an issue with the TL494 circuit as much as it is with the resonant frequency of the flyback I'm using. Unfortunately, I was only able to find one that operated at 25kHz, so I am getting heavy distortion above 12.5kHz. Aliasing is a sonofabitch. There is also a little distortion I'm inducing by pumping up the gain on my DSP, but that is inconsequential compared to the first issue.

[@Scorchstar678]

Thats amazing! You should make a video chronicling how you did it

[@Jacob-Sampson]

Amazing speaker. I have never heard of the idea of plasma being used as a speaker. How does it send waves through the air without a whole lot of surface area? Cool video too

[@brianavadikian8901]

is there any way someone could surround the arc with a stable gas as opposed to air? Maybe different gas mixtures could lower the distortion

[@chefjoesplaylists2565]

And block the sound, sadly.

[@brianavadikian8901]

I was thinking more like a pocket of stable gas that doesn't have the same distortion effects as regular air. I loved your set up, I gotta try this!

[@chefjoesplaylists2565]

As in a MIG or TIG welding setup, I suppose. Possible, but then you get other nasty gasses unless you use a truly inert gas like Argon or Krypton. Expensive. This, by the way, is not just an electrical effect. The plasma moves the air, but the motive force behind moving the plasma is the magnetic field the current flowing through the arc generates.

[@dmak2]

Joseph Perkins My thoughts exactly.

[@suzesiviter6083]

You would need an highly dense gas; forgot the name of it now)

[@ledfed1912]

Not the best transducer using an ark but it has its own distortion charm to it.

[@billysgeo]

What's the amperage draw on the PSU? Thanks...

[@suzesiviter6083]

Who cares...pretty sparks!

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

Thanks! It was a fun project.

[@ELGEvilLawnGnome]

Sure am.

[@2davydo]

But it seems to sound good, Question is can we here the difference between this design and the conventional tweeter design??. ..:)

[@dmak2]

Forgive me for being naive but what the hell is that yellow thing on the left?

[@Lazaralis]

dmak2 emergency eyewash station.

[@dmak2]

heretic30176 Ahhhhhhhhh :)

[@suzesiviter6083]

Put the needle in the centre of a ring magnet and the plasma will rotate producing more sound pressure, or what about vibrating the tip using a voice coil or hybrid of the two mentioned?, so it operates and looks like a plasma diaphragm.. Also note ionic gas is not so healthy, good news is you might be able to kill the ions usings UV-C light; in itself dangerous (a bit burny), so you would need to optically isolate it.

[@TrainMasterMan]

make it like a horn tweeter, ie add a plassic horn close to the arc point... to me compared to your woofer the plasma speaker is doing nothing

[@robinwatson4282]

TrainMasterMan the woofer is taking everything below the crossover frequency, and the tweeter is providing frequencies above that. That is the basic principle of multiple drivers. It's not 'doing nothing' - it's providing all that top end (which the woofer could never produce).

[@high1voltage1rules]

Very cool mate! Iv made one of these before and I had different frequency's going into it! Very cool ;-) Lol I can't beleave you made it into a sub?!? It looked too nice to drill holes into ;-) THUMBS UP*

[@jrlaudio]

I applaud your efforts, however you should read should read some of the data done by MIT in this idea from around the early 90's. It was discovered a plasma field annihilates the air molecules at the plasma/air threshold and you can never overcome the phase distortion produced by this phenomenon. So the maximum lowest distortion figure that can be achieved is around 10%, way to high by modern standards. Physics can suck sometimes, especially when the laws are not avoidable.

[@hansbozler5190]

Cool speaker and video

[@robertjusic9097]

Damn,I'm way to uneducated for this part of youtube,hopefully I'l learn:)

[@tasitasi2]

+Robert Ri It's fun and easy , believe me the hardest part is the beginning...

[@hansbozler5190]

You should leave this guy alone i read the comments and you can tell he is slow stop making fun of him bully

[@aldebaranflash2663]

Good job.

[@dronehomeless]

speed school graduate i believe.

[@alberttatlock5237]

So 99% of the sound comes from the woofer and tweeter, the crackle buzzing and popping comes from the arc speaker. Interesting idea but useless for actual reproducing sound. Arc on its own is comparable to playing a 78 record on an old wind up gramophone with a nail as a needle and the sound coming out of a metal horn. Acceptable in the 1920s as you didn't need any electricity to power it

[@keeganpaullanzillotta5584]

I think you misunderstood, the arc IS the tweeter. Also, it definitely required electricity

[@olfmombach260]

Music is good tho

[@BH4x0r]

ah okay

[@diogokroeff]

plasma twitter hahha

[@peterandersen4040]

try some real music like voice, violin, piano etc

[@TehBean14]

Soo cook make more vieos about it :)

[@fernandoarias1590]

Este si es el colmo de la re culada

[@honeylovly5018]

It's shet man