Loudspeakers

Alfred Llena Firlndel Morales

Everybody knows what it is

An electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input.

A little bit of history

Johann Philipp Reis installed an electric loudspeaker in his telephone in 1861 Alexander Graham Bell patented his first electric loudspeaker. In 1937, the first film industrystandard loudspeaker system, "The Shearer Horn System for Theatres" (a two-way system), was introduced by MetroGoldwyn-Mayer. The modern design of moving-coil (also called dynamic) drivers was established by Oliver Lodge in 1898. Improvements in cone Edwin Pridham Peter L. Jensen and materials, the introduction ofinvented the Magnavox. higher-temperature adhesives, improved permanent magnet materials, improved measurement techniques, computer-aided design, and finite element analysis.

Types of loudspeakers
Direct radiator loudspeakers
- where the cone or diaphragm is directly coupled to the air.

Types of loudspeakers
Horn loudspeakers

- where the diaphragm is coupled to the air by means

of a horn.

Types of loudspeakers
Ionic loudspeakers
- in which no diaphragm is used.

Now lets focus on the direct radiator types of loudspeakers, the most widely used speakers today.

Types of direct radiator loudspeakers

Moving coil or electrodynamic loudspeakers
- use an electromagnetic coil and diaphragm to create sound.

Types of direct radiator loudspeakers

Flat Panel Speakers
- use voice coils or other apparatus mounted to flat panels to act as the source of sound. - the flat panel acts as a diaphragm.

Types of direct radiator loudspeakers

Electrostatic speakers
- Large, flat diaphragm between two oppositely charged plates (+) and (-). Electrical input to diaphragm alternates its charge, causing vibration.

Types of direct radiator loudspeakers

Piezoelectric Speakers
- are limited in frequency response therefore they are only used as tweeters or in small electrical devices like watches/clocks to make simple sounds.

The electrodynamic loudspeakers today come in several types to produce a quality of sound for a given frequency range. These are:
Tweeters Mid-range speakers Woofers Subwoofers

Types of Drivers
Tweeter (2 kHz 20 kHz)
- used to produce all high-end frequencies. - can be cone, dome, piezo, ribbon, planar-magnetic, electrostatic and plasma or ion tweeter.
Cone tweeter Piezo tweeter Dome tweeter

Types of Drivers
Mid-range Speaker (300 Hz 5 kHz)
- covers most human voice along with most instruments. - The most common material used for midrange cones is paper, occasionally impregnated and/or surfacetreated with polymers or resins in order to improve vibrational damping.

Types of Drivers
Woofer (40 Hz 1 kHz)
- To accurately reproduce the lowest tones, a woofer, or group of woofers, must move an appropriately large volume of air. The larger the venue, the more air the woofer movement will have to displace in order to produce the required sound power at low frequencies.

Types of Drivers
Subwoofer (20 Hz 200 Hz)
- used only for the lowest part of the audio spectrum.

Loudspeaker System Design

Crossover
- separates the input signal into different frequency ranges suited to each driver. Active Crossover Passive Crossover

Loudspeaker System Design

Enclosures
- provide a place to physically mount the drivers, and to prevent sound waves emanating from the back of a driver from interfering destructively with those from the front. - Baffle is a flat panel where the drivers are mounted in holes in it.

Loudspeaker System Design

Wiring connections
- Most loudspeakers use two wiring points to connect to the source of the signal (for example, to the audio amplifier or receiver).

Loudspeaker System Design

Wireless speakers
- they transmit audio signals using radio frequency (RF) waves rather than over audio cables. - there is normally an amplifier integrated in the speaker's cabinet because the RF waves alone are not enough to drive the speaker.

Specs
Speaker or driver type (individual units only)
- full-range, woofer, tweeter, or mid-range.

Size of individual drivers

- outside diameter of the basket or the diameter of the cone surround, measured apex to apex for cone drivers. - voice-coil diameter may also be specified.

Specs
Rated Power
- this is the nominal (or even continuous) power, and peak (or maximum short-term) power a loudspeaker can handle.
- typically 4 (ohms), 8 , etc. - sealed, bass reflex, etc.

Impedance

Baffle or enclosure type

Specs
Crossover frequency(ies) (multi-driver systems only)
- the nominal frequency boundaries of the division between drivers.

Specs
Sensitivity
- The sound pressure level produced by a loudspeaker in a non-reverberant environment, often specified in dB and measured at 1 meter with an input of 1 watt.

Specs
Maximum SPL
- The highest output the loudspeaker can manage, short of damage or not exceeding a particular distortion level.

Fin