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LEDS and audio

Much of this is an off shoot of my experimentation with crystals. Again if you do not believe, don't bother reading further. This is simply the story of my foray into this stuff. More on apps later

That I can hear effects using precise placement of crystals has been well documented on this forum. Most effects I can attribute to the effects of piezo electric properties, but crystals have many more interesting properties.

Pyro electricity is one, where by heat applied to a crystal will generate ions. Tourmaline is perhaps the most common of the pyro electric crystals and is used for those ionic hair dryers and curlers you see marketed on the cosmetic counters.

There is also an interesting class of crystals which exhibit color change, usually depending on lighting conditions. The most famous is the stone alexandrite. Primo samples can change from emerald green to ruby red depending on the lighting condition. There are other color change crystals which may not be quite so dramatic. There are some garnets, and a synthetic quartz based stone called tourmalike which changes from a light green to a pale pink.

Alexandrite, if natural, commands sky high prices, but they now synthesize it, although the color change properties are minimal.

Now here's where many of you will roll your eyes. QED: Quantum ElectroDynamics. Google it, I was introduced by the short study Feynman wrote, ( no calculus, thankfully, took three semesters but hard to remember after more than three decades).

Basically, it examines the relationship between photons and electrons and says they are fundamentally interchangeable. Photons hitting an electron will generate another photon or even another electron. Doesn't explain why or the mechanism just that it exists.

To my convoluted thinking, I am of the belief that this helps explain the color change properties. Also since photons are interchangeable with electrons, perhaps this class of crystals could absorb a portion of the EMF fields generated by AC.

Initial trials did produce audible change, particularly over transformers and other strongly magnetic parts. I was disappointed in that the effect faded over a short time:about five to 15 minutes. Not viable at all. the effect faded too fast to be really useful.

Since light is a factor, I took those crystals out into the sun for 15 + minutes and then replaced them. They sounded even better than before, but the effect again faded over a slightly longer period, still not really useful. I am no physicist, but it certainly seems that the crystals needed light to stimulate the absorption of the EMF field.

Indeed shining a bright LED flashlight boosted the performance immediately. The Flashlight i used has a UV LED, white LED and green LED plus a red laser pointer, so I could experiment with different light and frequencies. In addition it has a flashing option.Still you needed the light continuously shining on the crystals to be effective.

The white light flashing gave the best results, although it is pretty irritating for me to have that flashing light so visible while listening.

I built boxes to hide the light. It does diminish the effect somewhat, but the visual irritation was gone. You need to make the box out of the most porous wood in order to maximize the effect. Balsa works the best. Even making one side ( component side) of balsa makes for a noticeable improvement

Part 2 will cover the building and some applications




Edits: 03/27/15 03/27/15

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Topic - LEDS and audio - unclestu 12:27:51 03/27/15 (35)

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