Near-direct and far-reverberant field response of direct radiator loudspeakers

Abstract

Typical audience seating arrangements in rooms and auditoria warrant reinvestigation of the direct radiator speaker response in the near-direct and far-reverberant fields, as the response data provided by the manufacturer is always ideal and does not account for the effect of those fields. The speaker response characteristics of a variety of direct radiator loudspeakers ranging from the conventional squawker to the full range radiator have been investigated in these fields. The speaker response is investigated in the 50-10 kHz frequency range, by measuring the A-weighted SPL (sound pressure level) in the near-direct and far-reverberant fields, using an acoustic analyzer. The field-specific characteristic for each of the radiators is determined by fitting the SPL data obtained to an appropriate polynomial. The coefficients obtained thereby, allow an objective field-specific study amongst radiators. When a set of direct radiator loudspeakers is available, it is necessary to configure their application, depending upon the optimum sound quality required for a given enclosure, in near-direct field and far-reverberant field. The outcome of this work assists one to configure the best radiator ensemble for a given enclosure, despite placement constraints.