Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook, 3rd Edition

 

3	Electrostatic loudspeakers
	Peter J. Baxandallrevised by John Borwick

3.1 Introduction

The electrostatic principle has inherent advantages which make possible the construction of loudspeakers with lower coloration, better transient response, lower non-linearity distortion, and radiation characteristics more suitably related to room acoustics, than can be achieved using other techniques.

The diaphragm in an electrostatic loudspeaker can be so light and flexible that the electric forces developed, over most of the audio spectrum, effectively act directly on the air load to create sound waves. The effects of complex vibrational modes in the diaphragm can be almost eliminated³³ making the acoustic performance theoretically predictable ...