Ahahhhaa. Are you kidding me?? Better Off Alone? Ahhahahahahaahha!!!!!! Oh, Alice Deejay, how I once loved you. I give anyone 3:1 odds that this was made at SUNY Stonybrook.

so wait, was the jar vibrating and producing the sound, or what?

NOW DO PINK FLOYD + lol @ above

>> ^laura:
so wait, was the jar vibrating and producing the sound, or what?

not quite. it's actually the "vibration" of the plasma that causes sound waves. Plasma speakers are cool because they don't have to use a magnetic field to move a speaker cone, so they are very very responsive to frequency changes because they have no mass to move around. They manipulate the air directly. Do a wiki of "plasma speakers" for a quick explanation.

Cool! I want some plasma headphones, or better yet, plasma buds.

"sick and tired of cone distortion in your earbuds? Try new PlasmaBuds!, (user forfeits all legal retaliation.)"

What I don't understand is how they created a plasma arc in open air. I thought it could only be done in a highly ionized atmosphere and/or partial vacuum....

time to get this beauty of a video in the top 15. *promote
I really hope this isn't fake, because it's probably the coolest thing I have seen in a very long time.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, March 30th, 2008 8:06pm PDT - promote requested by Oatmeal.

Better off alone (1999) LSDJ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Off_Alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBu5X3TvNw

I believe this is high voltage arc's not a non-stop plasma arc (as in neon tube). They are making and breaking the high voltage arcs in the kHz so you cannot tell. Also it appears to be 2kV and 2Amps?

pfff...that's nothing compared to my ectoplasm speakers

Sounds kinda "tinny"

Very impressive.

Now if only they could integrate this into police tasers.

My guess is that he is using neon or some similar gas.

>> ^arvana:
What I don't understand is how they created a plasma arc in open air. I thought it could only be done in a highly ionized atmosphere and/or partial vacuum....

Some pretty sweet plasma speaker videos by the guy that did this one, and pretty much anything that shows up in the "related videos" section.

And this is a modulated-flame speaker, same idea I think.

If the dielectric breakdown voltage of air is 3kV/mm and the spacing between the wires is about 65mm (~2.7in), then the voltage between the wires would have to exceed 200kV before the air would ionize and allow current to flow. This would be possible with a transformer with an extremely high turns ratio at the expense of current driving ability. The oscilloscope seems to show a pulse-width modulated waveform with a low duty cycle.

Nice work with all the breadboarding! I wonder if they ran into problems with the high voltage wires arcing to something unexpected.

That must be the real electronic music.

Only a matter of time before this is rick rolled

This is something else - truly amazing technology !

there's some even BETTER videos on UT by the same author :


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cEeWtBAE5LY


the Thompson Twins would't hav been my 1st choice, but it rocks in this vid !!

Promote request please