Plasma speakers or ionophones are a form of loudspeaker which varies air pressure via an electrical plasma instead of a solid diaphragm. The plasma arc heats the surrounding air causing it to expand. Varying the electrical signal that drives the plasma and connected to the output of an audio amplifier, the plasma size varies which in turn varies the expansion of the surrounding air creating sound waves.
The plasma is typically in the form of a glow discharge and acts as a massless radiating element. The technique is a much later development of physics principles demonstrated by William Duddell's "singing arc" of 1900, and Hermann Theodor Simon published the same phenomenon in 1898.