Mission improbable

Yesterday I mentioned the reason all loudspeakers are colored and veiled. They have mass to move. We don't know how to move mass without affect—no matter how thin or light it is. There have been several attempts at building massless speakers, like the Hill Plamatronics, though it included a conventional, heavy mass woofer. One of my readers reminded me of our friend, Nelson Pass (Threshold and Pass Labs), and his attempt at a full range massless loudspeaker. Check out Nelson in a suit! I don't know the history of this. But it certainly never made it to store shelves and, even if it had, anything generating sound with ions also makes ozone, a gas not good to breathe in excess. Which begs the question, if there was a massless speaker would it be without veils and added color? The answer would be no. The air itself has mass, and whatever means used to move that mass will impart a sonic thumbprint. Colorations are part of the listening experience. The trick is to find the ones most pleasing to you.