Acoustics: Sound Fields, Transducers and Vibration, 2nd Edition

9.4. Frequency response

The frequency response of a complete horn loudspeaker, in the range where the throat impedance of the horn is a resistance as given by Eq. (9.1), is determined by solution of the circuit of Fig. 9.3. A horn-loaded drive unit behaves very differently from a direct radiator. The diaphragm of a direct-radiator loudspeaker is mass controlled because a flat on-axis response is given at frequencies where the acceleration of the diaphragm is constant. Because the velocity decreases with frequency, so does the radiated power for ω   >   c/a, but this is compensated for by an increasingly narrow directivity pattern, which is how the flat on-axis response is maintained. By contrast, a horn has a fairly constant directivity pattern ...