ESOTERIC AND PRACTICAL
Although electrostatic, a JansZen's durability and convenience meet or beat any purely dynamic system. JansZens are exceptionally immune to room acoustics, thanks to closed backs, line arrays, and distributed bass radiation. As evidence of durability, there are JansZen electrostatics from the 1950's that are still in operation, some with no maintenance.
Due to the low drop-off of the line's sound field, a stereo image floats between the speakers, even for listeners who are outside the area directly ahead of them.
One challenge with electrostatics is that they need protection from over-voltage conditions to avoid destructive arcing. Since they sound the same at all levels, there is no audible warning when nearing the limit, as there would be from cone speakers.
One way to avoid arcing is to short out the amplifier when the voltage gets too high. That solution is problematic, because it will wreck some amplifiers. Instead, we developed a circuit that reduces the voltage to the panels while keeping the load on the amplifier above 3 Ohms.
One might expect the sound to be disturbed when the protection circuit is limiting the voltage, but it is hard to tell by listening, and it is completely non-intrusive when it is simply monitoring the signal.