Setting the Bias Adjust – for new owners

[ChrisSoundLab]

This is primarily for:
First timers who may be apprehensive about setting the bias and prompted by a couple questions recently from those who have bought used panels and didn’t have a manual or any idea of what the bias adjustment screw is for … I have made this short video to give an example.

For those who wonder why didn’t Roger make a ‘fixed’ bias which doesn’t require you to play around with this, you can easily imagine that Roger wanted to make the very best panel that matches your environment. He could have dialed down the bias charge so that there would be no over saturation of the membrane at any climate around the world, but that would have brought the sensitivity of the speaker way down. Instead he has gone ahead and made the bias adjustable because to get the best sensitivity from your panel the best charged state is just below the ‘crackling’ level.

What is the crackle? I have a several page answer from Roger explaining that if anyone wants to know. But simply put, it is the sound of random electrons being pulled from the stator wire to the membrane when the membrane charge is strong enough to attract and pull them thru the insulation (rubber which covers the stator wire). Pretty fascinating if you ask me.

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