The crossover point will vary from speaker to speaker but is typically around 2 kHz. Generally speaking, the highs will be sent to a tweeter, and the lows will be sent to a woofer. The 2-way speaker will have a crossover that splits the audio into high-frequency and low-frequency bands.
The two most common speaker designs include 2-speaker drivers (known as 2-way speakers) and 3-speaker designs (known as 3-way speakers). To learn more about active and passive speakers, check out my article What Are The Differences Between Passive & Active Speakers? Passive speakers have passive crossovers that deal with speaker level signals.Īctive speakers have active crossovers that split line level signals and send them to individual power amplifiers before they drive the individual drivers of the speaker. Therefore, crossover networks are designed into speakers to effectively split the audio signal into different bands that are best suited to drive each of the speaker’s drivers. This is particularly true of sending powerful low-end frequencies to tweeters. Sending frequencies outside the ranges of these different drivers leads to inefficiencies within the system and can even cause damage in some cases.
However, for the scope of this article, this is what we should know before getting into our discussion about the various driver sizes/roles/types.Īs mentioned above, the different driver units are designed to produce different frequency ranges within the audible range of 20 Hz – 20,000 Hz. Of course, there is much more to speaker design than what I’ve just mentioned. These bands are divided up by a crossover network that splits the audio signal and sends the different bands to their appropriate drivers. Therefore, it is to everyone’s benefit that speakers have various drivers designed to effectively reproduce different bands of frequencies within the overall audio signal. This is important because the electrodynamic speaker driver is, by nature, not overly effective at producing all audible frequencies (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz). A crossover network is generally included in the speaker design to send certain bands of frequencies to different drivers. Speakers are often designed with multiple drivers. This large thin diaphragm pushes and pulls the air around it and produces sound waves that mimic the audio signal’s waveform.įor more information on how speakers work as transducers of energy, check out my in-depth article How Do Speakers & Headphones Work As Transducers? Since the voice coil is attached to the speaker cone/diaphragm, any coil movement causes diaphragm movement. The spider suspension keeps the voice coil moving along a single axis and allows it to remain suspended in the driver. To learn more about speakers and magnets, check out my article Why And How Do Speakers Use Magnets & Electromagnetism? This varying magnetic field causes the voice coil to interact with the permanent field of the magnetic structure and move. As the AC signal passes through, it causes coinciding variations in the magnetic field in and around the voice coil. The speaker driver works by have the audio signal (alternating current) pass through the conductive element (voice coil). Simplified Cross-Sectional Diagram Of A Speaker Driver Let’s have a look at a simplified cross-sectional diagram of an electrodynamic/moving-coil speaker driver: These designs include a voice coil, magnet, suspension and speaker cone/diaphragm and work on the principles of electromagnetic induction. The vast majority of speaker drivers have an electrodynamic design. Related article: What Is The Difference Between Sound And Audio? In this article, we’ll describe the various driver types we’ll encounter in speaker design right after discussing speaker driver design and overall speaker design.Ī speaker driver is the transducer component responsible for converting audio signals (electrical energy) into sound waves (mechanical wave energy). Tweets are small and produce high frequencies woofers are large and produce low frequencies, and mid-range speakers split the difference. What are the differences between mid-range speakers, tweeters and woofers? The mentioned speakers refer to different driver types in speakers that have different sizes and roles to play in sound reproduction. If you’ve ever dealt with speakers, you’ve likely heard the terms “tweeter,” “woofer,” “subwoofer,” and maybe even “full-range” and “mid-range.” With so much terminology (jargon and informal), it can be difficult to understand exactly what is meant when we discuss speakers and audio equipment.