Professional Documents
Culture Documents
51
1979
Electrostatic headphones
Constructional design with improved acoustic output
by
N.
Pollock
capacitance a n d go od insulation
requirements. Because of these difficul
ties, most constructional designs are
driven dir ectly by high vo l tage
amplifiers. Valve 12 and transistor 23
amplifiers have been used but in all
cases the h.t. supply has been less than
400V. For convenience the amplifier h.t.
Amplifier design
Most transistors curr ently available
have a maximum VCE of less than 400V.
SOOY
Operational
+ 15
IC1
LM3900
amplifier
36 Volts
to two
amplifiers
c,
10"'1
5p 6
SOOY
Polarizing
supply
60k
3W
l nput u----
Headphone unit
2M2
10n
!kV
B to four
amplifie
1k
220k
c,
l)J
60V
lOM
5p6
Tr:,
& Tr2
52
Plate
Plate
breakdown.
A headphone amplifier sensitivity of
2.8V r.m.s. for maximum output was
selected so that it could be driven from
the headphone output provided on most
amplifiers. A lkQ resistor from the input
to ground prevents amplifier oscillation
when the input is not connected. The
prototype was built on two pieces of
Veroboard to keep the high and low
ou er n ss cre
C n t :: k:
q uo
: _ :
b:ra:: :
:
:Jl(
=lE'==:::::::: :
:
_ : d
A/
a;pConnecti
r ng t g
Plate contact
o
Countersunk
hole Matrix of holes Hole for
for plate contact
:::
3mm
Polarizing
pp
u
1N4007
"
Amplif
supplyi'er
open
circuit
at 26mA
Polpotaerintizoinmeter
g voltage
950V
750V
ly
800V-1600V
H.T.
A uadag
coating
q
0
0
supply
33mA
25V
470
35V
0
60mm
9 0 mm
E
E
E
E
53
Table 1.
Headphone design
100pF.
3Hz to 25kHz
1400V pk-to-pk at 5kHz
25V I I's
This
"gasket" is O.Bmm thick and can be
constructed from any flexible
insulating material.
A uadag coating
q
/ Spacer
Plate
i.__
Connecting tag
Diaphragm contact
hole for
Countersunk
AQuadag c ating
diaphragm contact
Construction
Following the guidelines mentioned
above, the headphone design has been
optimized for use with the amplifier in
Fig. 1. A cross section of the headphone
transducer is shown in Fig. 3.
Cut four plates from a sheet of 3mm
acrylic, such as Perspex, to the size
shown in Fig 4. Drill a matrix of 3mm
holes in all four plates which should be
clamped together so that they can be
drille d simultaneous ly. A piece o f
Veroboard clamped o n top of the plates
makes a useful drilling guide. Drill a
countersunk hole in one corner of each
::l::
_5-c;:::a)f-C
E
E
O>
Cl)
I
E
E
IO
54
The diaphragm material that I used
was a 0.0 127mm soft plastic foodstuff
wrapping film. From it s behaviour it
appears to be identica_I to Vit'.lfilm
'.2
10
1k
100
FREQUENCY
(Hz)
10k
(a)
10
100
- - --Microphone in
artificial
Safety
(Hz)
ear
(b)
Fig. 7. (a)
10k
1k
FREQUENCY
Headphone performance
Performance measurements were made
with a 12.5mm diameter B & K con
denser microphone in contact with the
centre of the damper or the centre of the
plate when the damper was not fitted.
For absolute sound pressure measure
ments the system was calibrated with a
B & K pistonphone.
55
Fig. 8. Hea dphone response to 20s pulses at lkHz (a) without dampers and (b) with dampers.
moved away from the centre of the
headphone unit indicated that t h e
average r e s p o n s e o v e r t h e w h o l e
diaphragm area was much flatter than
shown in F i g 7b. The r.m.s. sound
pressure produced by a 1400V peak-to
peak differential plate voltage at lOOHz
Appendix
Factors affecting acoustic output
(7)
F=
eQ
zd
References
1968.
3.
1971.
(2)
Q=EC
(3)
CCXd
fCX:
'h
(8)
(9 )
therefore
eEA
l!)
ex:
(10)
(!)
(11)
Amax
{
\AE
arcs is given by
cx:e
Amax
(!)
(I)
or
or
Amax
(4)
d2
lowing manner
Emaxcx:
where
( )
A
breakdown so equations
Td3
(5)
( )
AT
d
should be
10 and 11
"'
and
the design
( 6)
max
and
diaphragm
movement
The author
Neil Pollock studied mechanic al en
gineering at Melbourne University and,
after graduating, spent three years work
ing with aircraft flight test instrumenta
tion. Neil then gained a masters degree
1976.
4. Frederiksen,
He also has an
a new current
3900
differencing quad of
input amplifiers.
6.
1978.
University Press,
1954.
and
manufacturing difficulty.