tmajni@sequent.com (Tim Majni) (06/13/91)
I have been auditioning Apogee Stages for the past couple of days. These
speakers are giving my Threshold a real workout, but it hasn't flinched yet.
The sound is tremendous when in the sweet spot, iffy at best if your not.
Far field sound is great without these problems. The high end is sweet
and smooth, with an authoritative and tight bottom end, and very believable
and well balanced top to bottom. Simply put, it is the best sound in my
home to date.
Problems may exist with these speakers though. I had a friend come over
and listen for a while. He isn't an audiophile, but I trust his opinions
and ears..., but his nose? He said there was a distinct odor of ozone in
the room. I know that Nelson Pass was hositalized during a CES show because
of ozone generated from a set of planar speakers. I refuse to have this
kind of health hazard in my home, even if I didn't have small children in
my home, no matter how good it sounds. Therefore, I have several questions:
How is ozone generated?
Do Apogee speakers generate ozone?
How do you detect and/or measure ozone?
Could my amp be generating ozone?
Please email me at: tmajni@sequent.com
I will summerize with my personal findings and research and post a follow-up
here on the net.smgood@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (Brian Good) (06/19/91)
In article <13059@uwm.edu>, tmajni@sequent.com (Tim Majni) writes... >I have been auditioning Apogee Stages for the past couple of days. > > Do Apogee speakers generate ozone? > My Apogee Stages *did* smell funny for the first three months I owned them, but the smell seemed more like an adhesive or a resin of some kind. I talked with some of our space environment people (read atomic oxygen in space), and the consensus is that it's pretty unlikely a ribbon speaker would generate significant ozone if it's functioning properly. You'd get some ozone if you had arcing between the diaphragm and the magnets, support, or whatever, but, to the best of my knowledge, this is rare even in electrostatics, with their high polarizing voltages. In planars magnetics, it's even less likely.