How does a speaker work? I cant get my head around it..
Discussion
Can anyone explain basically how a speaker wproduces sound? I understand the concept, move the cone in and out rapidly using electrical current to vibrate the air, and a sound is produced, but if you have a single speaker for instance, how does that single cone vibrating in and out produce (eg) 5 different instruments that you can hear all at the same time?
A full range speaker cone would need to vibrate quickly and shallowly to produce the high notes, but also longer and more in and outty to produce the bass sounds, but it cant do this at the same time, so how does it make all the sounds come out at the same time?
Ive read up on speakers and they dont cover that point anywhere I can find, also they talk about the cone vibrating and making the sound, so how come if I wave my hand in the air it doesnt produce any sound? (im serious, I know it's basic stuff but I cant get my head around it). If I vibrate the speaker cone, nothing, if electricity does it, loads of sound, and the ability for a single cone to produce multiple pitches, notes, and sounds at the same time.
Please someone explain....
A full range speaker cone would need to vibrate quickly and shallowly to produce the high notes, but also longer and more in and outty to produce the bass sounds, but it cant do this at the same time, so how does it make all the sounds come out at the same time?
Ive read up on speakers and they dont cover that point anywhere I can find, also they talk about the cone vibrating and making the sound, so how come if I wave my hand in the air it doesnt produce any sound? (im serious, I know it's basic stuff but I cant get my head around it). If I vibrate the speaker cone, nothing, if electricity does it, loads of sound, and the ability for a single cone to produce multiple pitches, notes, and sounds at the same time.
Please someone explain....
Which is also why good speakers have multiple cones, woofers and tweeters. Just remember a microphone is basically a speaker in reverse it takes vibrations and converta them into electricity. The speaker then converts them back into vibrations.
"No, I don't want stupid things like woofers and tweeters"
"No, I don't want stupid things like woofers and tweeters"
Waving you hand around is a wee bit slower than the speed at which a speaker moves though which at its lowest (audibly) is 20 times a second.
If you were to clap however, this would cause an audible wave.
Once you've finished with speakers read up a bit about the ear - now that is an utterly fascinating instrument.
If you were to clap however, this would cause an audible wave.
Once you've finished with speakers read up a bit about the ear - now that is an utterly fascinating instrument.
Mars said:
Flap your hand as though waving, as fast as you can.
At the same time and the same arm, move your arm up and down.
That's essentially how both the high frequency and low frequency sounds are produced by a single speaker.
"D'you wanna an amp?"
How does that work though? I thought a loudspeaker only moves along one axis - aren't you suggesting that it does not?At the same time and the same arm, move your arm up and down.
That's essentially how both the high frequency and low frequency sounds are produced by a single speaker.
"D'you wanna an amp?"
Think about what it's possible for the air to transmit. It can only pass one compression wave.
When you have multiple instruments, all of their waves interfere and produce one single wave.
Open up a wave file on your computer in sound recorder - it's a single wiggly line that contains all the information about the sounds. That's all the speaker has to produce.
Don't listen to this b
ks about different bits of the cone moving differently. The only reason you have tweeters, woofers etc is so that you split the single wave into higher and lower frequency component parts and deliver them through a speaker which is specially designed to produce them accurately. It all adds back together in the air to make a single wave again, and is not actually necessary, just adds quality.
When you have multiple instruments, all of their waves interfere and produce one single wave.
Open up a wave file on your computer in sound recorder - it's a single wiggly line that contains all the information about the sounds. That's all the speaker has to produce.
Don't listen to this b
ks about different bits of the cone moving differently. The only reason you have tweeters, woofers etc is so that you split the single wave into higher and lower frequency component parts and deliver them through a speaker which is specially designed to produce them accurately. It all adds back together in the air to make a single wave again, and is not actually necessary, just adds quality.ccr32 said:
Mars said:
Flap your hand as though waving, as fast as you can.
At the same time and the same arm, move your arm up and down.
That's essentially how both the high frequency and low frequency sounds are produced by a single speaker.
"D'you wanna an amp?"
How does that work though? I thought a loudspeaker only moves along one axis - aren't you suggesting that it does not?At the same time and the same arm, move your arm up and down.
That's essentially how both the high frequency and low frequency sounds are produced by a single speaker.
"D'you wanna an amp?"
Use both hands/arms then (best do this in an environment where you cannot be ridiculed) and imagine you're looking at the cross section of a loudspeaker cone. You are actually moving in precisely the opposite way to a speaker which is energised from the middle but the principle of you operating at both high and low freqiencies is sound.
BMWBen said:
Think about what it's possible for the air to transmit. It can only pass one compression wave.
When you have multiple instruments, all of their waves interfere and produce one single wave.
Open up a wave file on your computer in sound recorder - it's a single wiggly line that contains all the information about the sounds. That's all the speaker has to produce.
When you have multiple instruments, all of their waves interfere and produce one single wave.
Open up a wave file on your computer in sound recorder - it's a single wiggly line that contains all the information about the sounds. That's all the speaker has to produce.
Thanks all, it's starting to make slightly more sense, so BMWBen, the speaker would create a sound for a drum snare and a split second later create the sound for the bass drum, the two sound waves would intermingle and form one "medium" wave?
Okay, I still dont get it
I have some single cone Anthony Gallo Micro Ti speakers which I changed to after having large Mission floortstanders that had bass, mid, and treble speakers. The Missions kinda made sense in that I figured each speaker had it's role, but now I look at the Gallos with one single speaker and listen to an entire orchestra of sound coming out of it, and it just doesnt seem possible for the cone to vibrate all of that accurately and the sound to come out as if all at the same time.
If it produces one sound, then another, then another, extremely quickly one after the other, would you notice more of a "split" between the frequencies the more differently pitched instruments you have?
Okay, I still dont get it
I have some single cone Anthony Gallo Micro Ti speakers which I changed to after having large Mission floortstanders that had bass, mid, and treble speakers. The Missions kinda made sense in that I figured each speaker had it's role, but now I look at the Gallos with one single speaker and listen to an entire orchestra of sound coming out of it, and it just doesnt seem possible for the cone to vibrate all of that accurately and the sound to come out as if all at the same time.
If it produces one sound, then another, then another, extremely quickly one after the other, would you notice more of a "split" between the frequencies the more differently pitched instruments you have?
Tokoloshe said:
Thanks all, it's starting to make slightly more sense, so BMWBen, the speaker would create a sound for a drum snare and a split second later create the sound for the bass drum, the two sound waves would intermingle and form one "medium" wave?
Okay, I still dont get it
No! Okay, I still dont get it
Think of the real world, go back to when the sounds were recorded. You have a bass drum and a snare, both hit at the same time. They both produce a compression wave in the air. The air can only have one compression wave flowing through it at any one time, as the particles of air can only be in one place at a time (ignore quantum mechanics, we're talking about molecules). So the two waves interfere and produce a "sum" wave in the air. Still only one wiggly line, just created by two seperate sources that have interacted. This wave is recorded by a microphone, and the electrical wave output captured on the recording medium. One wave.
The speaker just does the opposite, it turns that single wave on the recording medium back into a single wave in the air. if you have tweeters/woofers/subs, you STILL only end up with one wave in the air, containing the reproduced recorded wave, added to anything that was already there like a car going past outside, the OP farting etc.
Making any sense?
There isn't one wave, how could there be? If there were all sound from various point sources would sound equal irrespective of the way you were facing.
There are lots of waves all at different amplitudes travelling at different speeds.
A 20Hz wave is 22ft long, a 20KHz wave less than an inch.
How could one wave contain both these frequencies yet (whilst extreme) a speaker could reproduce both at the same time?
There are lots of waves all at different amplitudes travelling at different speeds.
A 20Hz wave is 22ft long, a 20KHz wave less than an inch.
How could one wave contain both these frequencies yet (whilst extreme) a speaker could reproduce both at the same time?
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