Loudspeaker Aspect Ratios

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Brent Venter

Freshman
Mar 31, 2011
22
0
1
Hello

I have read interesting material that opened up a new look for me on speaker coverage and behavior. This method basically takes a 90 degree speaker (in the horizontal) and classifies it as a forward aspect ratio of around 1.5 where the "throw" forward is 1.5 times further than the relative coverage to the sides.

This does make sense to me when you look at the actual usable coverage of above speaker pattern when designing for minimum variance.

Has anyone been using this method for designs and have you achieved good results?

Drop it like it's hot!
 
Re: Loudspeaker Aspect Ratio's

Brent Venter said:
Hello

I have read interesting material that opened up a new look for me on speaker coverage and behavior. This method basically takes a 90 degree speaker (in the horizontal) and classifies it as a forward aspect ratio of around 1.5 where the "throw" forward is 1.5 times further than the relative coverage to the sides.

This does make sense to me when you look at the actual usable coverage of above speaker pattern when designing for minimum variance.

Has anyone been using this method for designs and have you achieved good results?

Drop it like it's hot!
Click to expand...

A speaker’s nominal coverage angle is generally regarded as the point where response is 6 dB down in level.

One may view different coverage patterns as having different forward aspect ratios, a 30 x 30 has a higher aspect ratio than a 60 x 60, which has a higher aspect ratio than a 90 x 90, etc.

To design a speaker array, knowing the coverage angles at various frequencies of the various components used, and how they will interact in the array is necessary.

Whether one thinks of the polar response of a narrow dispersion speaker as having a “high aspect ratio” or “more beamy” or “higher Q” won’t change the measurement of the speaker, which is done in decibels at “X” angle and distance.

Designs use measurements, regardless of what they are called.

Good array design results require properly designed speakers, the language used to describe them is immaterial, though language is interesting.

If the use of the term “aspect ratio” allowed you view speaker dispersion in a new light, that is good.
 
Re: Loudspeaker Aspect Ratio's

An interesting approach and I can see how it might help some people understand the basic concepts. However, it does seem to assume a nice, smooth polar response with no lobes and that does not vary with frequency, which is nice in theory but not really valid for most devices. What really messes up some simplified concepts like this is something like a speaker whose pattern may drop 6dB as you move off axis but then increases again further off axis. That is why looking at the actual polars or balloon data over the operating frequency range can potentially tell you so much more about the directivity of a speaker than a single number value.
 
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