Smoking and Electrostatic Speakers?

Smoking is bad for everyone and everything, except tobacco companies (and I'm not sure about them, either). ESL's will attract any airborne particles, including smoke, and so far as I know there is no safe and effective way to clean them. I once had an air cleaner that was specifically targeted to smokers, and it's special magic was that it was electrostatic. But I also I recall reading that ML had taken some steps to reduce their speakers' susceptibility to dust and humidity. I would think that the damage would be reduced if you smoke while the speakers are unplugged. Mind you, smoke is deadly to bits like cartridges and and records, too.

Most airborne particles are positively charged, and most electrostatic speakers have a negative charge on the diaphragm (which attracts these airborne particles). An electrostatic air cleaner uses negatively charged electrodes specifically because they are so effective at attracting dust particles. Because of this phenomenon, many electrostats either have a thin mylar dust cover or an automatic shut-off circuit. Neither is an ideal solution.

The electrostats I own and sell, Sound Labs, use a different and (in my opinion) more elegant apprach. Sound Labs use a positively-charged diaphragm, which of course repels positively-charged airborne particles. This allows Sound Labs to get away without a dust cover, and since they can stay fully charged up all the time they always sound their best.

Sound Lab has speakers over a dozen years old in the homes of smokers that have never needed any service. While the speakers might be marginally happier in a totally smoke-free environment, the presence of cigarette or cigar smoke seems to have no practical effect on either the life or performance of the Sound Labs. They just smell a little funny and are a bit harder to sell to a non-smoker.

If you catch a ray of sunlight right in front of a Sound Lab speaker, you can see the dust particles kind of drifting around in the ray. Those particles that drift too close to the speaker will suddenly shoot away, having encountered the positive-charge field. In fact, over time you can actually get a dust buildup on the floor in front of a pair of Sound Labs from the particles that have been repelled, or so I've been told by one owner!

as others have said, smokin' be bad with electrostats. 'shrooms, however, should cause no concern. at least insofar as your speakers are concerned. -cfb