Abstract: This is a review on the operation of the plasma/ionic loudspeaker. Although not commercially or functionally viable yet, the exploration of the plasma loudspeaker might bring the field of sound reproduction closer to a change in paradigm. In this paper, the different discharge methods and regimes to generate the plasma discharge are described, the parts of some functional loudspeaker models are recounted and the advantages and disadvantages of them are identified. Plasma loudspeakers do not have some of the drawbacks present in traditional loudspeakers, as they are massless systems thus no inertia, this results in transparent transient responses and more uniform frequency responses.
