Does the size of the driver matter for SQ

Hi!

Not sure if this is the correct section, please move if required.

I've always believed that the size of the driver will impact the sound quality of the speaker. Is this true ?

While selecting my HT speakers, I found that some of the JAMO models had 2inch mid/tweeters while other brands - wharfedale, Acoustic Energy used bigger 3" or 4" drivers for the mid / high ranges.

I understand that a bigger driver is able to 'push' a bigger volume of air thereby producting more sound, however is this statement entirely true ?

How does a smaller driver produce same SQ as a bigger driver ?

Hi,

There's no one word answer to your question !! just a plain "YES" or "NO" will not do !!

its much more complex then that !

This will only hold good for bass (as this requires lot of cone movement), mids and highs hardly require a large driver as the driver's cone need not move as many times as compared to bass !

Having said that it also noteworthy that a properly designed speaker with a relatively small driver of 6.5" can reproduce very high quality sound and generous amount of bass ( sounds contradictory but true).

Yes some manufacturers prefer separate mids ( although almost all in todays date use soft dome mid as opposed to cone mid) with the said dia,but for tweeters its mostly 1" (the dia refers to the coil dia not the entire tweeter dia !!).

Hope this answers your questions !! any further doubt just fire !

If you are from bangalore,then I can show you practically !

Regards.

Hi smsrini, driver size do matters.... midrange drivers should never be smaller than 3 inches in diameter, they are commonly between 3 to 6.5 inches (ideally over 4 inches). anything less than 4 inches creates substantial limitation in the mid-bass response. The smaller the driver, the less surface area on the cone, and thus the more excursion that is required to push the same amount of air need to produce audible sound. Thus with a 3 inch driver, the physical excursion of the cone would have to be tremendous in order to perform like a standard 6-inch midrange.
In case of tweeters, it should be between 0.5 to 1 inch in diameter, and never more than 2 inches. Larger tweeters are especially poor performers.

Anil

smsrini,

Yes, the driver size does matter. While almost everyone agrees on that, there is no consensus about the driver size. Different people have different opinion. Specifically when it comes to mid-range, some people say 3" is the best size, others say 4" other say 5". Same holds true about full range driver. Opinion varies from 2" to 5" for full-range driver.

Thankfully, there seems to be some degree of consensus about high frequency drivers and low-frequency drivers.

Frequency produced is a function of air moved. The amount of air moved is a function of the cone area and voice coil size. Agility, Rigidity of the cone material, strength of the magnetic material, precision of the voice coil winding are some of the factors that affect the sound quality.

In a multi-driver setup, there additional considerations. The cross-over design, sensitivity matching etc. Do some searches on the Net and you will find a plethora of material on the subject.

Answering that a little more directly, sound quality is not a function of driver size. Driver size is directly related to the range of frequencies it can produce. Larger drivers can move more air, hence go lower. Smaller drivers can move less air, hence can't go as low as a larger driver if all other parameters remain same.

In order for a driver with a smaller cone area to go as low as a driver with larger area, its voice coil displacement (or excursion) must be more comparatively.