ABSTRACT
The reproduction of speech, music and alarm signals requires loudspeakers to make them audible. The enormous variety of loudspeaker systems and designs makes it particularly difficult to identify the optimal system for the intended application. For professional users in sound reinforcement technology, a comprehensive characterization of the system properties is therefore necessary. In the following chapter on loudspeakers, the basic characteristics of the most important sound transducer (the dynamic loudspeaker) as well as the parameters relevant for its use (physical characteristics, measurement data and the presentation of the same) are presented. This also includes important sound field properties such as the radiation resistance and the sound bundling resulting from the transducer size. Furthermore, the most important designs of loudspeaker systems, consisting of one or more transducers for specific frequency ranges, are presented. The measured parameters important for the evaluation of loudspeaker systems, which are required for the planning and dimensioning of complex sound reinforcement systems, are presented in an application-related manner based on the physical relationships. Linear (sensitivity, frequency response, impedance etc.) and non-linear parameters (harmonic distortion, power compression etc.) are explained as well as the particularly important three-dimensional parameters (directivity, etc.). In the context of current transducer arrays, line arrays as well as two-dimensional arrays are presented. Digital loudspeaker arrays with electronically adjustable directivity, which are becoming more and more predominant, are dealt with separately at the end of the chapter.
