Major milestones in Speaker Technology.

[Nev375]

We've come a long way in speaker technology over the last [DEL]50[/DEL] 100 years. From the time when a speaker was just crammed in a sealed box and larger cones meant better for bass to now we have carefully tuned cabinet designs that can get monster bass from arrays of any size driver.

Along the way, we've had adventures with large folded horn cabinets, aluminum or plastic speaker cones, isobaric designs, passive radiator speakers, lightweight magnets, all sorts of interesting things. But I really don't know much about the who, how, when and why of these.

I wonder if between all of us, we can make a definitive list of the innovations, what person or company was responsible for it and how it may have influenced other innovators.

 

[TNCreature]

Well you need to go back to the beginning. The Flintstones. When a parrot would fly between a box on Mr. Slate and his secretary's desks repeating what each of them said.



I really know nothing about speakers. :'(

 

[PlungerModerno]

Ampeg? the B-12,15 and 18's were early tube amps, designed in.... 1960 according to the wiki:

Fender too. The amps and cabs (initially all tube combos AFAIK) were low wattage, very prone to speaker failure etc. etc.

I'm no expert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampeg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_instrument_amplification#History is kinda an overview.

There are a bunch of specialist sites... like vintage fender sites, and lots of material for people to share and discuss.

 

[seamonkey]

Wikipedia has a good article on loudspeakers.
Moving coil loudspeakers pre-date amplifiers. Telephones used them. Still do.

Good set of articles on what went wrong in the 60's around concert sound.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Lowactnsatsfctn]

I wonder if between all of us, we can make a definitive list of the innovations, what person or company was responsible for it and how it may have influenced other innovators.

Paging BFM

 

[Rune Bivrin]

Paging BFM

He's given up on TB.

His mode of communication in the face of people promulgating audio myths was a bit too terse for the powers that be...

 

[Lowactnsatsfctn]

He's given up on TB.

His mode of communication in the face of people promulgating audio myths was a bit too terse for the powers that be...

That SUCKS




He was constantly flamed for helping people and giving good info based on scientific facts. I kinda wondered why he didn't post in my 15's thread

 

[Bass Unique]

Horn speakers were around 50 years ago. In fact, horns for audio have been a known "amplifier" for 100 years and are still the most efficient way of acoustically matching power to air. Small horns for bass, although initially appearing attractive and convenient will be somewhere between reflex and traditional horn efficiency or would have a reduced bass extension to improve efficiency.

Isobariks do have a place in the Hi Fi world where you can get an extended bass shelf response from relatively small boxes but they cause a 6dB loss of efficiency so not generally suitable for pro-audio.

I experiment with transmission line hybrids which I believe offers reduced distortion through better cone control and an extended bass from smaller boxes. However, the traditional TL is likely to only offer efficiency similar to a sealed box except at the terminus cut off frequency which will be similar to a reflex efficiency (very simplistically). The improved cone control though would allow more power to be put in before X-max is reached.

As stated above, check wiki for the big names in these fields. There are lots and usually, there is one person accepted as the "inventor" but it is likely that there were many others working on similar designs at once.

Re BFM, I will miss his constructive comments and presence on TB but he did come across as very opinionated and resistant to considering new (or non BFM) ways of thinking....

There are still many others, including myself who are happy to continue to provide free impartial advice on here to improve bass reproduction. Hopefully without being "flamed"

 

[Brown Sock]

Martin Audio were ahead of their time. Although more of a PA manufacturer, their 115 and 215 bins have been known to be great for Bass cab use.

 

[René_Julien]

He's given up on TB.

His mode of communication in the face of people promulgating audio myths was a bit too terse for the powers that be...

Hey may not have been 100% right all of the time, but I valued his expertise and opinions very much.

Guess I'll be lurking on his own forum.

 

[Sequimite]

We've come a long way in speaker technology over the last 50 years. From the time when a speaker was just crammed in a sealed box and larger cones meant better for bass to now we have carefully tuned cabinet designs that can get monster bass from arrays of any size driver.

I DON'T THINK SO ...

The Bose 2201, developed in the early sixties used an array of 22 5" speakers in each cabinet.

These guys were ENGINEERS. They didn't just cram speakers in a sealed box. There has been little or no improvement in sound quality since the 1950's.

 

[mmbongo]

I still remember the massive sound of my Dad's JBL D130's paired with those 075 titanium horn tweeters. He built them back the 60's. I'd love to be able to get that sound today, but nothing comes close.

 

[Steve]

Well you need to go back to the beginning. The Flintstones. When a parrot would fly between a box on Mr. Slate and his secretary's desks repeating what each of them said.

I'll back then they were arguing about which parrot was best for metal

 

[teemuk]

We've come a long way in speaker technology over the last 50 years.

True. But like in all technology the major leaps were taken in few first decades (1920's-1940's) and since then development has practically narrowed down to finer details.

When it comes to musical instrument apmplification though, expect that most of the "innovative" stuff was adopted in use about 30 years after it was actually innovated.

 

[seamonkey]

Permanent magnets started replacing field coils in the 1940's
That was probably the most significant milestone.
They could actually tune speaker cabinets to reproduce bass, and not hum from the field coil.

 

[Jim C]

Aren't the biggest milestones recent ones like:
* Greater thermal power handling
* Greater X-Max
* Lighter weight

 

[Bassmec]

Aren't the biggest milestones recent ones like:
* Greater thermal power handling
* Greater X-Max
* Lighter weight

Well all that comes under the heading of better adhesives
really, as copper still melts at exactly the same temperature.
the last bit about lighter weight (neo) might already be a thing of the past like very high sensitivity now watts are that cheap.

 

[Faraday]

That SUCKS




He was constantly flamed for helping people and giving good info based on scientific facts. I kinda wondered why he didn't post in my 15's thread

When you let the less capable loudmouths run out some of your most capable posters, be they meekly courteous or merely curt, the value of the board goes down for everyone. Have we let the wrong people get run out?

 

[will33]

True. But like in all technology the major leaps were taken in few first decades (1920's-1940's) and since then development has practically narrowed down to finer details.

When it comes to musical instrument apmplification though, expect that most of the "innovative" stuff was adopted in use about 30 years after it was actually innovated.

I would pretty much agree with this. The basic function of a speaker is 100 years old or more. Horn loading them dates to the 1930's at least. Actual horns, think trumpets, tubas, etc. are centuries old. They just had to figure out how to work it with a speaker instead of buzzing lips as the sound-maker. Over-simplication there, I know, but you get the idea.

The last few decades have brought incredible improvements to the basic speaker, but, they could still be considered refinements/upgrades. Hi-fi came in with the 1950's. More advanced horn loading concepts and line-array technology came in later, but it's still speakers.

Perhaps affordable plasma designs getting into widespread use, or just beaming sound directly into people's brains will be the next real innovations. The CIA is already working on that and has some workable prototypes.

 

[Gizmot]

What you're really talking about is the evolution of audio since the 1940s. The Fender - Ampeg, etc amps of that era had speaker compliments conceived largely by trial and error. In the early 1970s Thiele and Small figured out that a speaker enclosure was a filter and its performance could be quantified - which eliminated a lot of trial and error.
Audio companies such as Electro-Voice, Altec and JBL came up with many innovations in transducers that are now commonplace. The real breakthroughs don't happen very often but technology marches on