Speaker Drivers

This is just a short post to explain to you exactly what a speaker driver is. Enjoy.

The speaker driver, which is usually the speaker itself, is an integral part of a home theater system. The driver is the actual ‘thing’ that converts the meaningless electrical signals into actual sound and music. It does not refer to the speaker box/enclosure itself, but the speakers inside the enclosure. To put it in simple terms, when you look at a speaker itself and you see these circular objects embedded in the speaker. These are drivers.

Drivers range from tweeters (high frequency/pitch), midrange and low range (low frequency/pitch). The tweeters are usually the small cones and the low range woofers are usually the large heavier cones. If you know your physics, this is very logical (F=ma). On the higher range speakers, tweeters, you need the cone to vibrate more quickly. In order to do this, you need a very quick velocity change of the cone, in other words, acceleration. To gain a higher acceleration with less force, you obviously need a smaller mass, hence, a smaller cone. This is the general rule of thumb when manufactures build drivers for certain frequencies. Good speakers usually have a low range woofer, a high range tweeter and sometimes a midrange driver in one speaker box. To be able to send certain frequencies to their designated driver, speakers often use a crossover. Read more about crossovers.