I am trying to find out whether a speaker's shape effects its sound quality. I thought that if a speaker wasn't round, a 6 by 9 for example, then the sound waves would roll of the speaker at different rates causing distortion or sound cancellation. I am just frustrated because my friend is stubborn and doesn't believe me when I tell him that. So if someone could tell me how speaker shape effects sound quality I would greatly love to rub it in his face. Thanks.
Johnny25 said:
I assume you mean driver not speaker since you mentioned 6x9. The cabinet shape and volume, material, stuffing and positioning in the room all affect sound. The position of a driver on the baffle (for mid and high frequencies) will have an effect on the sound as will how its mounted (flush mounted, chamfered etc). It follows that the shapeof the driver mounted on the baffle will have an effect too. This is just the surface of it and we generally concern ourselves with this stuff in hi-end design. If you'er talking about 6x9's then in all liklelyhood you're talking about car audio. Let your friend live blissfully in ignorance.
Actually, if you take only the drivers and exclude the enclosures and room from the equation, and assume no real differences between the cones (shape depenent break ups, stiffness etc) then I'm not so sure that the cone shape, considered only by itself, will bear any difference to the sound.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
It's me again. For my own peace of mind I would just like to ask, and yes I meant a 6*9 oval vs. say a round 6.5, if the cone shape is oval would the sound coming off of it be shaped differently at different locations around the speakers perimiter. With the longer sides and short top and bottom lengths, the angle of the cone would be different all the way around.
Your question suggests a misunderstanding of the way loudspeakers work.
How do you imagine that sound waves 'roll off' the cone? The cone is, ideally, a piston which produces areas of rarefaction and compression in the air in front of it - i.e. sound waves. The rate at which the waves 'roll off' (are propagated) depends on the density of the medium - in this case air. As the shape of the cone has no bearing on this, the waves will be propagated consistently for any shape of diaphragm.
BTW, supposing the effect you suggested did exist, have you thought about how much effect reflection and diffraction by adjacent surfaces have? In a car especially, such effects would completely swamp any difference due to cone shape.
Having said all that, as a very generalised rule of thumb applied to cheap drivers only, round drivers do tend to be better designed and made than oval ones, so there's a grain of truth in it
How do you imagine that sound waves 'roll off' the cone? The cone is, ideally, a piston which produces areas of rarefaction and compression in the air in front of it - i.e. sound waves. The rate at which the waves 'roll off' (are propagated) depends on the density of the medium - in this case air. As the shape of the cone has no bearing on this, the waves will be propagated consistently for any shape of diaphragm.
BTW, supposing the effect you suggested did exist, have you thought about how much effect reflection and diffraction by adjacent surfaces have? In a car especially, such effects would completely swamp any difference due to cone shape.
Having said all that, as a very generalised rule of thumb applied to cheap drivers only, round drivers do tend to be better designed and made than oval ones, so there's a grain of truth in it
Hi
Being a fan of spherical enclosures and having built quite a few, I
have concluded that rather than putting cores in the middle
of the sphere for damping it might be a better idea to
have egg shaped interiors and spherical exteriors. Maybe
it all harps back to the Olson tested on baffles. Rod Elliott's
ESP site is a healthy place to starton this subject
Regards
AnthonyPT
http://sound.westhost.com/bafflestep.htm
Being a fan of spherical enclosures and having built quite a few, I
have concluded that rather than putting cores in the middle
of the sphere for damping it might be a better idea to
have egg shaped interiors and spherical exteriors. Maybe
it all harps back to the Olson tested on baffles. Rod Elliott's
ESP site is a healthy place to starton this subject
Regards
AnthonyPT
http://sound.westhost.com/bafflestep.htm
HI
Sorry if I was a bit off beam although cabinet shapes have their place !
Ok if the topic is on Driver shapes; in the lower registers we have
drivers like the KEF b139 classic and in the bass/mid registers those Japanese FAL units that Peter Daniel is checking out. Horses for Design courses? I recall it was the Mordant Shorts that went through a oval phase and those funny French drivers that had good reviews. After owning a pair of Sheppard Audio speakers in the 70s that had replaced the B139 with a B200 Kef I would be inclined to think that in the piston driven driver arena if the design is well executed you really have to weigh up performance with other factors . Where there also some tweeters from France that had gold oval domes? Really I think the quality of construction and basket rigidity are far more important.
Regards
AnthonyPT
Sorry if I was a bit off beam although cabinet shapes have their place !
Ok if the topic is on Driver shapes; in the lower registers we have
drivers like the KEF b139 classic and in the bass/mid registers those Japanese FAL units that Peter Daniel is checking out. Horses for Design courses? I recall it was the Mordant Shorts that went through a oval phase and those funny French drivers that had good reviews. After owning a pair of Sheppard Audio speakers in the 70s that had replaced the B139 with a B200 Kef I would be inclined to think that in the piston driven driver arena if the design is well executed you really have to weigh up performance with other factors . Where there also some tweeters from France that had gold oval domes? Really I think the quality of construction and basket rigidity are far more important.
Regards
AnthonyPT
Just to clarify (I'm sure you know this), no driver works as a piston, in fact full-range cone drivers would be dead in the water if they did work as pistons. At high freqs, flexing progressively reduces the effective area and mass of the cone, which is a good thing. If the movement were truly pistonic, beaming would be laser-like and high freqs would be dull.el`Ol said:
Hi
Sorry guys very badly worded, was not referring to piston
action but to such drivers in a more figurative sense.
Although the movement of a voice coil in a gap might
be referred to as a pistonic like action! Dictionary
says metal moving closely up and down in a tube.
In a way in this case at least a half truth unless my eyes
deceive me. Underhung baskets included!
The reason was to separate the oval drivers with conventional
speaker baskets and voice coils from the
exotic near fullrange drivers such as wave bending Airfoils,
big long Ribbons and others. OK if you ran a B139 full range it would sound horrible even with huge Eq'ing. (stupid idea!) I guess oval full range drivers if designed properly would behave audably well. Wonder if anyone has done research on this and no doubt use of a baffle or box or sphere to mount said driver would
be more significant IMHO.
So back to the plot! Must watch my late night ramblings !
Have I got this right? A Loud Speaker is an orator
with a voice like a fog horn !
Life it to be savoured!
AnthonyPT
Sorry guys very badly worded, was not referring to piston
action but to such drivers in a more figurative sense.
Although the movement of a voice coil in a gap might
be referred to as a pistonic like action! Dictionary
says metal moving closely up and down in a tube.
In a way in this case at least a half truth unless my eyes
deceive me. Underhung baskets included!
The reason was to separate the oval drivers with conventional
speaker baskets and voice coils from the
exotic near fullrange drivers such as wave bending Airfoils,
big long Ribbons and others. OK if you ran a B139 full range it would sound horrible even with huge Eq'ing. (stupid idea!) I guess oval full range drivers if designed properly would behave audably well. Wonder if anyone has done research on this and no doubt use of a baffle or box or sphere to mount said driver would
be more significant IMHO.
So back to the plot! Must watch my late night ramblings !
Have I got this right? A Loud Speaker is an orator
with a voice like a fog horn !
Life it to be savoured!
AnthonyPT
Research past blogs....
I don't have skin in the game, although I believe that if oval drivers are designed right, there may be some advantages to using them in some circumstances, and vice versa.
Here is a conversation on the topic:
Myth: Oval/"odd" shaped speakers can't sound as good as round speakers - Car Audio | DiyMobileAudio.com | Car Stereo Forum
Retsel
I don't have skin in the game, although I believe that if oval drivers are designed right, there may be some advantages to using them in some circumstances, and vice versa.
Here is a conversation on the topic:
Myth: Oval/"odd" shaped speakers can't sound as good as round speakers - Car Audio | DiyMobileAudio.com | Car Stereo Forum
Retsel
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