Panphonics plane wave speakers - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 13, 2019, 12:35:29 am
content: I picked up two of these NIB yesterday at a surplus store. They're virtually unknown in this country. Has anyone here had an experience with them? if so, what do you think of them?http://www.sirkom.com/en/producto.php?id=589More technical detailshttp://www.sirkom.com/datos/doc_productos/archivo1240/Technical%20details%20of%20SSH60X60%20RS%20model.pdf

author: dzseki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 13, 2019, 06:52:16 am
content: By the specs it looks like an electrostatic speaker, in high-end audio there are quite some fan of this technology. I don't know anything about this particular one though. Judging on the specs the low frequency cut off is at 200Hz, which would be quite poor for music reproduction, but with a help of a properly tuned subwoofer I think it should be OK.

author: mjs
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 13, 2019, 07:00:17 am
content: Yes, I've got plenty of experience with them. Which exact version did you get ? There are versions with separate element+amplifier and with integrated amplifier like on the pages you linked. Some versions have ambient audio compensation to keep the volume just above the ambient noise. Environment reflection calibration for that was an interesting project. The design was done for 24/7 operation in warm environment with quite long life time - i bit challenging to find electrolytics to match this!The frequency range is limited in the low end to about 300Hz for both SPL and directivity, but above that you'll get nice directional beam of sound. I used to have one prototype above me in the lab to play some music. They're biased electrostatics, but made for commercial use.Try setting up one on the ceiling with soft floor, then set the volume so that being 2-3m on the side you just barely hear the music - then walk under the speaker. Or beam the audio from the wall to a corridor. When set up correctly, you'll get a feeling you've got no idea where the sounds inside your head appeared!

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 13, 2019, 03:02:47 pm
content: MJS, the complete description from the package says that they are 600x600 cm Sound Shower, white color, with an integrated amplifier, made for USA or Japan, and have the RS-232 interface. There's no mention of ambient compensation.I would imagine that you could make some interesting audio effects by mounting several around the room and then varying the phases of the audio inputs to the different ones.Thanks everyone for your replies.

author: mjs
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2019, 06:42:11 am
content: Multi-element phasing works better with elements radiating around - the plane wave is great for creating spots (ceiling mount) or corridors of audio (wall mount). There's a 20cm*60cm variation, which is used for corridors - when mounted horizontally, the horizontal beam is quite narrow, but vertically wide to cover something like an aisle in a shop.The main thing to really get the effect is to keep volume low enough so that you just barely or not at all hear the audio when not in the beam.