[Tronz]

As the title says. 

 

[anetode]

Stax SR-001/003 + silicone ear mold

 

[Tronz]

Quote:

Stax SR-001/003 + silicone ear mold

Cool, what about a full blown custom?
 
 

 

[DefQon]

Not possible.

 

[anetode]

It's a shame, but I don't think even stax is crazy enough to make one. The major problem is that you need a decent diameter (>1cm) for the stat driver, think trying to comfortably shove a four stack of quarters into your ear.

 

[DefQon]

And if there is technology that allows a static driver to be small enough to be into a acrylic or silicon mould without having bad sound quality then it would cost more then double of what customs cost nowadays. 

 

[tf1216]

7 years later...

https://alclair.com/monitorshop/electro-electrostatic/

 

[ElectricSeoul]

7 years later...

https://alclair.com/monitorshop/electro-electrostatic/

The folks at Sonion have made this breakthrough possible and we've taken full advantage of this technology as well. You can find more information from Sonion here.

 

[aminus]

Technically speaking? Yes, the likes of the KSE’s driver could be put into a CIEM. Only problem is no one is willing to due to the R&D costs, as well as the general inconvenience of electrostatics limiting the product to the audiophile market instead of being marketable to professionals as well.

As for the Sonion drivers, those are not true electrostatics and should not be treated as such.

 

[ElectricSeoul]

As for the Sonion drivers, those are not true electrostatics and should not be treated as such.

There is some confusion as to how and what is described as an electrostatic tweeter, so if you are splitting hairs there is a difference. Technically speaking electrostatic elements have an external bias voltage and electret elements have a permanent charge voltage. The pure definition of "electrostatic" is relating to stationary electric charges or fields as opposed to electric currents. Both have a stationary electric charge and achieve the same end result using similar principles; a capacitor based transducer with a membrane as one of the plates to generate sound. In the case of a traditional electrostatic element the charge is a bias voltage. In the case of the Sonion tweeter it is a fixed voltage on a plate. In terms of performance there is no difference however and these components are referred to as "electrostatic tweeters" in order to avoid confusion in the market because 99% of end users have never heard of an electret tweeter. Hope this helps!

 

[aminus]

In terms of performance there is no difference however and these components are referred to as "electrostatic tweeters" in order to avoid confusion in the market because 99% of end users have never heard of an electret tweeter. Hope this helps!

There certainly is a difference in performance considering the frequency response range of the electret tweeter is severely limited compared to its full range counterpart. On top of that, the Sonion drivers use transformers to obtain any sort of SPL from the highly inefficient electret tweeters, which introduces a capacitative load. I won't get into subjective impressions between the two but that alone is a major differentiation between a legitimate electrostatic driver and the electret tweeter setup. If one were to dismiss "both use static electricity on a membrane" as the same driver one could just as easily dismiss planar magnetics and dynamic drivers as "magnetically driven diaphragms". They simply don't function the same and the sole reason for the lack of differentiation is marketing hype.