
Subject: Re: Plasma speakers Date: 12/31/2012 2:12 AM
Recommendations: 0
I started getting caught up with "The Green Hornet" TV show (1966-1967) and of course the opening and closing credits song is the same song that was demoed at kickstarter: The Flight of the Bumblebee.

I would have three concerns that immediately come to mind:

1. RF Interference. It's one thing to play with Tesla coils in a lab at MIT, but I suspect it might interfere with radios and over-the-air TVs nearby. While the user's manual mentions RF Interference, it's only in conjunction with the attached audio source, not how it may affect equipment of the neighbors or FCC compliance. One might find oneself splurging for better grounding, power line conditioners or filters, and a Faraday cage if it bothers your neighbors' equipment or even equipment used by others in your house.

2. Fidelity and dynamic range. The lowest volume possible is what it takes to strike an arc, which puts the floor on the softest sound possible pretty high. And even that can vary based on humidity, temperature and dust (including the contents of that dust), so there is varying uncertainty of floor of that softest sound possible. So this would limit what sounds could be reproduced, so more traditional speakers will not be threatened by these "plasma speakers".

3. This device can be quite dangerous, both the risk of fatal electrical shock (10mA AC is the "can't let go" threshold; more than 30mA crossing the heart can potentially cause fibrillation and result in death; the user manual mentioning "tens of milliamperes, which means three "tens of milliamperes" crossing the heart could be enough to produce a shocking transition into the afterlife), and fire. If you have kids, they will play with it (playing with the sparks and seeing what pieces of paper they can ignite in the spark gap) unless you make sure it is kept secured when you aren't physically present.

So, other than a novelty item, I just don't see this becoming a part of one's home theater any time soon, or for that matter, a part of us cheapskates' TV setups.
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