The end of Esl:s?

[Sillycone]

I must inform You all about a new kind of loudspeaker, invented in
China. It consists of a very thin Nano tube film, much thinner than the one
in Esl:s. No transformer is needed, purely resistive load. However, a bias voltage must be applied to prevent frequency doubling, just as in Esl:s.
It has no problem reaching one megahertz treble! Sensitivity is higher than that of dynamic speaker and is, according to the article, very easy to manufacture.

Article:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/nl802750z


Quick time movie:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/nl802750z/suppl_file/nl802750z_si_002.qt

 

[FISH_MAN]

only time will tell

 

[Rich]

Whatever.

What good is a million hz. when your hearing only goes up to 20,000 hz.? Proof is in the pudding. Just because they can make it, doesn't mean they can make it sound good.

 

[C.A.P]

Many designs in the last 20 years have came and went. Like Rich said. Lets se um make it ! And MAKE it sound GOOD!

 

[FISH_MAN]

maybe they are going to market them to the family dog.If i am correct I do not last time I checked I don't think I can hear past 15khz anyway

 

[JonFo]

Interesting concept. I hope someone continues to develop it.

But we should all remember that ESL tech was invented in the 30's/40's and commercial speakers lagged by a decade ('53), and really good ones (ML's) even more.

So the CNT based material speaker, while proven in concept, still has a lot of R&D left to go.

The question is: who will put a few million into R&D for speakers in the current economic climate?

Now, if you could engineer it to repel bats or other high-frequency sensitive pests away from sensitive areas (crops, military installations, etc.), then maybe the baseline tech will flourish and migrate over to consumer products.

But again, it will be the better part of a decade (or more).

 

[Rich]

Agreed, Jonathan. I welcome new technology. But it does take awhile from proof of concept to final product. I don't see ESL's in danger of obsolescence any time soon. According to their own charts, they were getting upwards of 50% THD pushing this speaker with just a few watts. And the frequency response curve was all over the place. It still has a long way to go.