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Speaker Driver Material & The Sound of Dissimilar Materials

Can anyone explain(NOT anecdotally)how it is possible for a driver made of metal(aluminum etc..)to properly convey the tone of wood & how a wood/pulp or plastic based driver can convey properly the tone of metal(electric guitar strings,cymbals)?This is a very confusing concept to me...
freediver
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,118 posts
 
That's a pretty good explanation.  👍

freediver OP
1,143 posts
 
I'm sorry but "soundwaves"are not what we hear,soundwaves are nothing more than the pressure waves of air movement caused by the vibration of initiating object.If all we heard where soundwaves everything would have the same tone.It is the frequencies of vibration that gives us pitch,timbre(tone)& texture.This is where my confusion lies.Just can't seem to wrap my brain around how an aluminum or poly woofer can accurately vibrate at the same freq.as the wooden body of a cello(for example) & this is what I'm hoping someone can explain.
 Thanks for the reply though...
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,753 posts
 

You have a preconceived notion that the material of a driver has to naturally vibrate at the same frequency as the material of the instrument it is trying to reproduce---in other words, have the same resonance characteristics. That is such an incorrect notion, one doesn’t know where to begin to explain why. Where on Earth did you get that idea?!

To reproduce a single frequency (to make it simple), the driver moves forward and backward a certain number of times per second. What the driver is made of is (sorry) immaterial. It is the movement of the driver that creates sound, whether the driver is made of paper, plastic, metal, or wood.

The funny thing is, different materials DO have different sounds, to a degree. But that is a separate thing from what you are asking.

joey_v
663 posts
 
OP

i think you need to read up on acoustics and sound reproduction.

Drivers are meant to reproduce recorded sound, it doesn't act like the string of a guitar.
ohlala
1,235 posts
 
Soundwaves are what people hear in which there is a frequency and time element. Try investigating harmonics (distortion) and ASDR envelope.

There is difference between free vibration of an insturment and forced vibration of speaker. 
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