Events

Event Information:

• Tue

  24

  Sep

  2019

  Colloquium: Sound Reproduction and Loudspeaker Structural Modes

  4:00 pmLewis Hall 101

  Carl Jensen
  Transducer Technology Group
  Bose Corporation

  Sound Reproduction and Loudspeaker Structural Modes

  Many familiar sources of sound involve vibrating structures like a piano sound board, an acoustic guitar's body, drums, and all kinds of vibrating machinery. Similarly, almost all technologies for mechanically producing sound also work by exciting some kind of vibrating structure as well, but, in sound reproduction, the goal is to recreate the original recording as accurately as possible. So the fact that all vibrating structures exhibit modal behavior can be good or bad: the diversity and excitation of modes in musical instruments lends them their unique sonic qualities and richness, but these same characteristics are very much unwanted in a loudspeaker meant for accurate reproduction. In this presentation, I'll discuss some of the principles of sound reproduction and perception as well as laying out how we can use computer simulations to untangle the complex acoustic behavior of these modes to understand their behavior and make better sounding loudspeakers.