Speaker Basics

a brief run through on what a speaker is, it's components, how they work, and a discussion of frequency and hertz

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• petermichael
• speaker
• basics
• sound
• music
• petermichaelmusic
• surround
• voice
• coil
• spider
• 101

[johnhelmes]

wow if i could go in and out 15000 times in a second id be golden lol 9:08

[petermichaelw]

@johnhelmes i'll respond to this because it's actually related to the topic, and i regularly use innuendo when i teach to reinforce a concept. so...

the woofer, due to it's large size and it's function, travels far less times per second, yet moves "the farthest".

the little tweeter, (the 15k chap), moves such a small distance, or excursion, that it often can't be seen, or in your reference... felt. :

[jjaallyay]

i am planning on buying new speakers and i was wondering what the difference was between car speakers and other spears. This is for a home theater.

[petermichaelw]

good question.

the simple answer is there is no difference.

i know many examples of folks putting "car" speakers in wall, or in ceiling for home theater use. they are completely acceptable, and will always win bang for the buck against the ones branded as "in wall speakers."

be aware the natural frequency response of a car speaker should be a little brighter than that of a normal speaker, as usually they are designed that way.

the only other thing to consider -

[petermichaelw]

and i wouldn't worry about this unless you plan on playing your music / movies loudly... -is the impedance / resistance of the speaker in the car is 4 or 8 ohms and many home amplifiers are rated for 8 ohms minimum.

Just check your receiver / amplifier to make sure it can handle the speaker you are using. You will want to run 2 4 ohm speakers in series (google image search "speakers in series" ) to get 8 ohms for your amp if need be. Also remember ......

[petermichaelw]

the series vs parallel only applies to similar frequency speakers. lets assume you have 2 speakers both 4 ohms... if you have 2 full range speakers in series then the impedance doubles to 8 ohms. but if you have a 5" woofer and 1" tweeter in series the amp still sees basically a 4ohm load.

the speaker produces basically a resistance to the electrical energy, which contains varying frequencies. so the 5 inch woofer wont produce any resistance to frequencies used by the tweeter and vice versa

[dmconley1]

I'm learning a great deal tonight. Thank you for taking the time to truly educate....much appreciated!!!!!