The cone loudspeaker driver consists of magnet and a (voice) coil.
The magnetic field lines are using the line of least resistance and travel, therefore, focussed through the air gab (green) between the right pole plate and the pole piece (both grey). The voice coil (red) is located in the air gap.
If current flows through the voice coil (vertical to the picture: red dots), then the magnetic field creates a force (green, vertically oriented) that travels vertically to the current and the magnetic field, i.e. to the left or to the right, horizontally in the picture. As a result the cone is moved to the left or to the right (blue arrows).
For the cone to radiate sounds evenly and efficiently to the ambient environment, this cone should have a specific size (similar to a high frequency aerial):the diameter of the cone D should have - considering symmetrical feed-in - roughly half the wavelength λ/2 of the sound wave. The wavelength λ = c / f, where c represents the speed of sound (340 m/s) and f represents the frequency in Hz. To radiate a 20 Hz tone a driver with the diameter of 1/2 * λ = 1/2 * (c/f) = 8,5 m would be required.
For 20 Hz a cone of 8.5 metre diameter is required and for 20 kHz a diameter of 8.5 mm. Consequently, several drivers, each covering a different frequency range, are mounted in loudspeaker cabinet.
Fact is: a cone diameter of 8.5 mm is feasible, of 8 metres certainly not.
For an efficient radiation of low frequencies this cone is definitely too small. This can be corrected in many ways:
The third solution works best: if a smaller magnet is used (or a dropping resistor is placed in the path to the driver), then the force of the driver will be reduced and the volume drops with the same current coming from the amplifier. At low frequencies, close to the resonance frequency, this driver will dominate, the reason why its volume hardly drops. Result: a lot less mid and high frequencies, almost the same amount of low frequencies - meaning the speaker produces more bass. The draw back is that the smaller the drive, the less control over the driver, meaning a lot less oomph.
If a smaller magnet or a dropping resistor is being used, the size of the cabinet usually has to be increased as well, to make sure that the bass resonance is not too pronounced and that the bass doesn't sound loose.
To match drivers some examples with Alcone AC 12..
Theoretical aspects of subwoofer development: How to tune a subwoofer? - using a closed cabinet - with or without capacitor in series - with or without resistor in series - using a bass reflex cabinet What are the advantages / disadvantages?
All hobbyists should stop here and first go to our tools pages to calculate the correct size of bass drivers using a choice of cabinets.
To get into the right mood, here are some formulas on subwoofer drivers (for experts only) and some practical examples about drive power.
The solution: Use a driver with a strong magnet (Qts smaller than actually necessary) and fit a resistor in series. Don't worry about the damping factor - it doesn't matter here. We'll explain later - or choose the next solution.
There is still another tuning method for bass reflex speakers. Basis is again is the idea: the stronger the magnet the better the control over the cone and the smaller the chance of the voice coil getting hot or the bass sounding loose.
In the picture below the red curve represents the frequency response of a bass driver with a strong magnet mounted in a closed cabinet.
If this driver is mounted in a bass reflex cabinet of the same size, then the bass reflex tube may be tuned according to the steep, blue curve resulting in a flatter (blue coloured) overall frequency response.
If just the bass reflex is just tuned lower (steep, green curve), then a kinked frequency response curve is attained.
The low tuning pictured above causes the problem that the sound pressure level rises with increasing frequencies (from about 60 Hz). Therefore, this tuning should only be used for subwoofers where the amplifier's cut-off frequency of 65 Hz (not pictured) is generating an overall cut-off frequency of 80 Hz (overall frequency response: blue curve).
Using this type of subwoofer, the amplifier's cut-off frequency should be set somewhat lower than actually desired.
If the low tuning needs to be calculated accurately, then this can be done with commercial simulation software like e.g. LSP-CAD (picture left).
Pictured is the AC 12 SW4, where - the black curve represents the overall frequency response - the blue dotted line represents the frequency response of the bass driver (not flat due the inner feedback of the bass reflex tube) - the red curve represents the frequency response at the bass reflex tube - the black dotted line represents the phase response
only Subwoofer Sub 10-60.
Special types of subwoofers (URPS, Dipole, RiPole) Home