The development of really effective practical devices has already been underway for more than fifty years. The main impetus to the commercial growth and wider application of high quality loudspeakers began after the end of the Second World War. Development was encouraged by improvements in disc recording and by the advent of VHF broadcasting.
The development of really effective practical devices has already been underway for more than fifty years. The main impetus to the commercial growth and wider application of high quality loudspeakers began after the end of the Second World War. Development was encouraged by improvements in disc recording and by the advent of VHF broadcasting.
The development of really effective practical devices has already been underway for more than fifty years. The main impetus to the commercial growth and wider application of high quality loudspeakers began after the end of the Second World War. Development was encouraged by improvements in disc recording and by the advent of VHF broadcasting.
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society Vol. I -Val. 25 (1953-1977) preface The history of loudspeakers is now well into ifs siderable encouragement by the advent of com- second century and the development of really ef- mercial stereo disc records, and by the end of the fective practical devices has already been under- 1955-65 decade the majority of domestic way for more than fifty years. The importance of loudspeakers were less than two cubic feet in the loudspeaker in the emergence of the entertain- volume, with low sensitivity and correspondingly ment industry can scarcely be overestimated for, wide bandwidth. At this time (1965) high-fidelity without it, none of the popular media such as radio, was still a rarified hobbyist pursuit, but there quick- television and film could exist in their present form ly followed what can only be described as an explo- and the development of the phonograph would sion of interest in dornestic sound reproduction, have taken an altogether different Course. and just as quickly it became big business on a The main impetus to the commercial growth and world-wide scale. wider application of high quality loudspeakers The focusing of attention and the availability of began after the end of the Second World War. funds for research inevitably led to the develop- Development was encouraged by improvements in ment of even better loudspeakers. This period has disc recording and by the advent of VHF broad- so fa; bb& marked by the'.introduction of new casting which reduced the limitations on both diaphragm materials, better constructional bandwidth and dynamic range. Both medta were. ' methods for enclosures and studies for improving also greatly influenced by the introduction of the integration of sound in multi-way speaker magnetic tape recording which made the long play- systems. Along with these developments have ing record a commercial possibility and subse- come radically new methods of measurement and quently reduced the dependence of broadcasting evaluation made possible by advances in digital on live performances. These developments in- computer technology and associated industries. fluenced loudspeaker development as the need These new techniques are not only more accurate arose to keep Pace with improvements in the quali- but are also considerably faster and therefore more ty of Programme sources. convenient than conventional methods of measure- Before World War II, the majority of ment. . loudspeakers were characterised by limited band- Throughout this period, beginning with the for- width-usually restricted to a frequency range of mation of AES in 1948, the Journal of the Audio 70 to 7,000 Hz-large physical dimensions arising Engineering Society has published more than 160 from a need for high sensitivity to operate satisfac- papers on loudspeakers. The collection of papers torily with available tube amplifiers (average con- presented here has been selected from those tinuous power 10-15 watts) and irregular amplitude- which are considered to be of significance, either frequency response. During the decade 1945-1955 because they mark an important stage in the attention was concentrated rnainly on extending development of loudspeaker technology or bandwidth by about one octave at each end of the because they contribute to the understanding and range, i.e. 35 to 15,000 Hz. the history of the subject. Recognising that much of With these objectives satisfactorily accomplish- significance has appeared outside the pages of the ed, high quality loudspeakers still remained large Society's journal, we have also included a list of enough, and some would say ugly enough, to cause references to other irnportant published work. The resistance to their introduction in domestic set- publication of this anthology, together with the list tings. This. state of affairs altered rapidly towards of related reading at the end of this volume, the end of the Fifties due to the introduction of so- represents a fitting monument to all those whose called air suspension speakers which traded sen- endeavors have advanced the art and science of sitivity against internal air volume. By this means it sound reproduction to its present state. was possible to reduce the overall bulk of loudspeakers to about one quarter of their former Raymond E. Cooke October 1978 size. These developments were given quite con- Maidstone, Kent, England PART 1: 1953 THROUGH 1969 Design Factors in Horn-TypeSpeakers. Daniel J. Plach (October 1953) . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Recent Developments in Direct-Radiator High-Fidelity Loudspeakers. Harry F. Olson. John Preston and Everett G. May (October 1954) . . . . . Correlation of Transient Measurements on Loudspeakers with Listening Tests. Murlan S. Corrington (January 1955) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 An Electrostatic Loudspeaker Development. Arthur A. Janszen (April 1955) . . . . . . . 21 The lsophase Loudspeaker. Theodore Lindenberg(April 1956) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Corona Wind Loudspeaker. Gerald Shirley (January 1957) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Problems of Bass Reproduction in Loudspeakers. Edgar M. Villchur (July 1957) . . . . 38 Application of Negative lmpedance Amplifiers to Loudspeaker Systems. R.E. Werner and R.M. Carrell (October 1958) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Performance of Enclosures for Low Resonance High Compliance Loudspeakers. James F. Novak (January 1959) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 A Survey of Performance Criteria and Design Considerations for High-Quality Monitoring Loudspeakers. (Reprint) D.E.L. Shorter (January 1959) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Corner Speaker Placement. Paul W. Klipsch (July 1959) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 ' Analysis of the Effects of Nonlinear Elements ~ C o n the Performance of a Back- Enclosed. Direct-Radiator Loudspeaker Mechanism. Harry F. Olson (April 1962) . . . 77 On the Transient Response of Ideal Crossover Networks. J. Robert Ashley (July1962) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Loudspeaker Enclosure Walls. Peter W. Tappan (July 1962) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 .. C
A Method of Testing Loudspeakers with Random Noise Input.
Edgar M. Villchur (October 1962) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Constant Directional Characteristics from a Line Source Array . David L. Klepper and DouglasW. Steele (July 1963) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 lnterrelation of Speaker and Amplifier Design. Victor Brociner and Daniel R. von Recklinghausen (April 1964) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Trends in Loudspeaker Magnet Structures. R.J. Parker (July 1964) .............. 110 Low-Frequency Response and Efficiency Relationships in Direct-Radiator Loudspeaker Systems. Roy F. Allison (January 1965) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 High.Power. Low-Frequency Loudspeakers. John K. Hilliard (July 1965) . . . . . . . . . 117 Loudspeaker Phase Characteristics and Time Delay Distortion: Part 1. Richard C. Heyser (January 1969) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Loudspeaker Phase Characteristics and Time Delay Distortion: Part 2. Richard C. Heyser (April 1969) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modulation Distortion in Loudspeakers. Paul W. Klipsch (April 1969) (See Parts 11 & 111. February 1970. December 1972) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Experimental Determination of Low-Frequency Loudspeaker Parameters.
J. Robert Ashley and Mark D. Swan (October 1969) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 PART 11: 1970 T 0 1978 Modulation Distortion in Loudspeakers: Part II. Paul W . Klipsch (February 1970) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 The Development of a Sandwich-Construction Loudspeaker System . (Reprint) D.A. Barlow (June 1970) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Constant-Voltage Crossover Network Design (Reprint) Richard H. Small (January 1971) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phase and Delay Distortion in Multiple-Driver Loudspeaker Systems . Richard H. Small (January 1971) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 Loudspeakers inVented Boxes: Part I. (I3eprint)A.N. Thiele(May 1971) . . . . . . . . . . 181 Loudspeakers inVented Boxes: Part II. (i3eprint)A.N. Thiele(June 1971) . . . . . . . . . 192 Active and Passive Filters as Loudspeaker Crossover Networks. J . Robert Ashley and Allan L. Kaminsky (June 1971) . . . . . . . . . . . Electrical versus Acoustical Parameters in the Design of Loudspeaker Crossover Networks. G.L. Augspurger (June 1971) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Application of Electric Circuit Analogies to ~oudspeake;Design Problems. (Reprint) Bart N. Locanthi (October 1971) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 .
Determination of Loudspeaker Signal Arrival Times:+'art I:
The lnfluence of Room Boundaries on Loudspeaker Power Output
Roy F. Allison (June 1974) 339 Calculating the Directivity Factor Y of Transducers from'Limited Polar Diagram Information Michael A Gerzon (June 1975) 346
An lntroduction to the Design of Filtered Loudspeaker Systems.
Radiation from a Dome. James M. Kates (November 1976) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Analysis of Decoupled-Cone Loudspeakers James M Kates (JanuarylFebruary 1977) 402
A Novel Approach to Linear Phase Loudspeakers Using Passive
Crossover Networks. Erik Baekgaard (May 1977) . . . . The Application of Digital Techniques to the Measurement of Loudspeakers. J.M Berman and L.R. Fincham (June 1977) . .