Jansen electrostatic tweeter questions

info on the

If you spelled "Janszen" correctly, you might actually have helped him. ;-)

Kal

If you spelled "Jantzen" correctly, you might have good luck finding rebuilding info on the web.

-- Stephen Sank, Owner & Ribbon Mic Restorer Talking Dog Transducer Company

Are you sure about that, Kal? When I corresponded with Frank Dennesen some years ago, he did not correct my speeling it "Jantzen", and he certainly should have known the right spelling.

-- Stephen Sank, Owner & Ribbon Mic Restorer Talking Dog Transducer Company

rebuilding info on the

I believe you are both correct, though Kal is referring to the correct company in this instance. I recall seeing components manufactured by Jantzen and that there used to be a manufacture of finished speakers named Janszen. IIRC, the latter was the product using and electrostatic tweeter. The name Art Janszen comes to mind, and I believe was the designer of one of the first electrostatic tweeters in the 1950s?. Old stuff...I seem to recall some KLH speakers that used that tweeter and some affiliation with McIntosh.

Leonard

some years ago, he did

the right spelling.

rebuilding info on the

tweeter.

of

"1953 - Arthur Janszen was granted patent No. 2,631,196 on March 10, 1953, for an electrostatic high-frequency speaker"

Jantzen makes women's swim suits.

named

one

with

There is also

Leonard

rebuilding info on the

Actually it's Janzen, NOT Jantzen. And yes I did misspell it. Irrelevant actually since I didn't do a web search. While Ive been out of the been out of the loop inregards to hifi hardware for some years I'd heard some years back that Janszen was out of the business. Even if they are still around I doubt they'd be able to help since these units have been collecting dust in the back of my warehouse for at least 15 years.

info on the

It JANSZEN, not Jantzen. I could either post a scan of one of the tweeters or e-mail it to any non-believers. Says Janszen on them clear as day. Wasn't even aware there was any company by the name of Jantzen manufacturing hifi hardware. There WAS however a company named Janszen that made speakers and other hifi components during the 60's-70's right here in the US.(Much of it was even good quality.)

That you Leonard for the clarification. Yes I go back that far. And yes I seem to recall some of my early McIntosh boxes having electrostats in them.(Most likely they were Janszen's.) I've had and sold so much audio gear over the years(Once had a recording studio and was co-owners in a couple of hifi shops way back when.) that I have trouble keeping all the different hardware straight. Memory can start to slip after a certain age, especially if you've been out of the business as long as I have.

Which is why I asked here. I have a large warehouse full of much of that vintage gear and now that I'm retired completely I've been dusting much of it off and playing around with it. I believe the units I'd asked about were from the late 70's or maybe early 80's, probably some of the last that Janzen made.(correct me if I'm wrong about them being out of business.) If I recall right the original customer brought them back after a week or so and traded up to something bigger. They had a scratch on the veneer, couldn't be sold as new, and got stuck in the back of the warehouse to collect dust for a couple of decades. I've long since tossed out all my service manuals for the old stuff, doubt I had anything for these tweeters anyhow. I do recall these speakers as having very crisp, transparent highs and thought it'd be nice to have them in a couple of monitors I'm building. Like I said one of the radiators was cracked and having forgotten just about all I'd learned about working with powered electrostats thought someone here might be able to give me some info on these. I was thinking to reduce the array from four in a square to three across.

Can I take it then that none here know anything about the tweeters themselves or anything about eletrostatic tweeter design/theory?

No. I know far too much about it. No room for anything new it seems.

As a first approximation, you will lose 25% of max peak power out. How are they driven?

You're correct, I'll lose output but if I've been informed correctly it'll also change the impedance values so I'd better stay with a quad setup and try to repair the cracked unit.

The ESL's came out of a pair of Janszen speakers made in the mid or late 70's and have the internal Janszen power supplies. From conversations with other ESL diyers these were the the later 130 models and had fairly good power supplies. I've got both the power supplies and the grids stripped out and in a box on a corner of my work bench. When I get more info and get the time I'll put the grids apart and clean them up, the power supplies are in mint condition as they didn't get more than 30 hours or so of play time until they were stored. I found a ESL forum on the net that will probably be a good source for parts and such.(I understand they now have better grades of diaphram materials available as well as better conductive coatings and laminating methods than just mylar and rubbing with carbon.)

After looking at the grids a bit closer I believe I'll be able to get them apart with out to much difficulty and I'm sure that after having been stored for so many years it couldn't hurt to replace the mylar either.

are

IIRC these are very high impedance anyway so that shouldn't be a consideration. If you want to test, put an 8 ohm resistor in series and hook a scope across that - with a 2 channel use one across the tweeter and one across the resistor.

It's all down to the construction. ISTR seeing build your own articles very many years ago. I always lusted for the 'big' British electrostatics (Quad?) which were (almost) full range.

There's a diy forum for building ESL's from scratch and many on there build copies of the quads. Here's the url:

From what I've read it's not that difficult to build 'em and there are all sorts of new materials that offer improved performance over what was state of the art way back.

I had a pair of Dalqhuist's in my shop back in the late 70's that were large electrostatic panels. Weren't all that efficient but they had amazing transparency and imaging and had some of the cleanest highs I've heard from a mass produced driver.(Sadly I could sell some of the finest hifi to be had but could seldom afford it for myself.) I'm mostly retired these days and would be building all sorts of nifty audio gear but for the fact that I have a wife.(She can't stand ANY sounds louder than that of a transistor radio.) Ironic considering that I still have much of my closing stock from my stereo shops still sitting in storage after all these years and am dying to dust much of it off and actually use it before I expire. ( Grounds for a divorce in the opinion of many.)

If you've been bitten by the diy hifi bug I have other links to speaker building and other stereo sites if you're interested. I'll eventually get around to pulling those Janszen's apart and upgrading them if possible. If interested I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks, I've made a note of these.