terminology

[r.cherry]

I have a question regarding audio nomenclature. Does driver = speaker?

ie. K75K = driver?

Yes I am that ignorant.

Thank you

rich

[r.cherry]

yes or no will suffice here.

i figured this to be a quick no brainer for the first one to look.

thank you

rich

[dragonfyr]

Yes, as commonly used, a driver is a "speaker" - a tranducer.

"Speaker" can also refer to a functional unit consisting of a collection of components, such as drivers/tranducers, crossovers, and enclosure, etc.

As the term "speaker" is often used interchangeably to refer to a transducer or a complete unit in common speech, either explicit qualification or the context is usually helpful to determine the specific reference.

Confused yet?

[r.cherry]

----------------

On 5/15/2005 4:05:46 PM dragonfyr wrote:

Yes, as commonly used, a driver is a "speaker" - a tranducer.

"Speaker" can also refer to a functional unit consisting of a collection of components, such as drivers/tranducers, crossovers, and enclosure, etc.

As the term "speaker" is often used interchangeably to refer to a transducer or a complete unit in common speech, either explicit qualification or the context is usually helpful to determine the specific reference.

Confused yet?

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif">

http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/images/smilies/9.gif">

----------------

Not confused, enlightened! Thank you. That is what i thought but i hate to assume...

[LarryC]

A bit of elaboration from the Am Heritage Dictionary:

trans·duc·er (trns-dsr, -dy-, trnz-)

n.

A substance or device, such as a piezoelectric crystal, microphone, or photoelectric cell, that converts input energy of one form into output energy of another.

In other words, the initial conversion from a mechanical or magnetic signal to an electrical audio signal is also done by a transducer, such as a phono cartridge, tape head, mic, etc. Just like the speaker as transducer converts the ensuing electrical signal (back) to a sound wave.

Larry

[wrench_peddler]

A speaker is normally thought of as a round, cone shaped thing with magnet on the back of a metal frame that holds it all together. The cone shaped part moves to make the sound. A driver on the other hand , as in your example, is more of a diaphram that is on the front of a magnet that is vibrated to make the sound. The sound is then directed by a horn shaped gizmo that is bolted to the front of the driver.

[D-MAN]

Context is everything, my friend...

The commonly used term "speaker" is technically short for "loudspeaker" or "loud speaker" from the old days, which denotes an electro-mechanical sound-broadcasting unit or device. Usually it also denotes the transducer and the enclosure combination. The context of audio differentiates the "speaker" from being a person who is speaking to an audience. For instance, a Google search for "speaker" and will certainly return more than you bargained for.

The term "driver" refers specifically to the tranducing device (transducer) that converts an electrical signal to soundwaves. The "driver" can therefore refer to any device that performs the above operation, whether it uses electrical fields, static charges, cones, diaphragms or whatever.

Of course, the context is again indicative of whether the "driver" is a golf club, an operator of a motor vehicle, or a loudspeaker transducer.

DM

[dodger]

But then we still must digress. First the megaphone.

Then then Horn reproduction of Cylinder Recordings.

Then the breakthrough to what are commonly called Victrolas - a 78 rpm ususally approximately one inch thick Diamond Disc.

A breaktrough again with wire recorders.

Then the for mat found tape. Usually sticky, but they decided upon iron oxide to have it particles aligned to match the music played,or spoken. Magnets charged by electricity did so.

In the interim, loud speakers gained by being charged them selves - thus the 4 wire format leading to the two wire format.

And in the end: a Driver is active with passives added.

There are various magnet composition, Alnico being the most sought after, ceramic being the norm today.

So if all of this confuses you, or any of the above - the serious parts of mine- they enlighten you that's what we try to do with some humour, which may only be funny to the author.

However, it's a darned good question!!

[WMcD]

In my view the proper terminology is:

Driver for the device which drives a horn. We sometimes use the term compression drivers. The bass horns use speakers as drivers. E.g. the K-33 speaker.

Speaker I would reserve for the raw driver which is suitable for use as a direct radiator. It could be the woofer, squauker, or tweeter. I'd call these transducers too.

Then there are "speaker systems" which is pretty much the box and everything in it, anything that is in addition to a single speaker. This allows many descriptive modifiers: A two way system, a three way system, bass reflex system, horn loaded system.

It is interesting that in the old days devices which had an electrical input and an acoustic output was called a receiver. In old patent documents you see transducers of all sorts referred to as receivers, even those mated up to horns.

This nomenclature is still of some memory, perhaps from old movies and novels, talking about telephones. "I said goodbye and put the receiver back on the hook." That sort of thing is a reference to the old WE candlestick telephones. The receiver is what you put up to your ear. There was a hook to put it back on. That whole device was called a switch-hook. The microphone was called a transmitter.

End of lesson.

Gil

[r.cherry]

The context I was really interested in was contained in the thread, ALK Cornscala with K401 or Trachorn , over in the two channel forum. In that thread jwcullison built his own hybrid cornwalls. I was trying to find / figure out where one gets the individual components / speakers. I asked

very very nice, did these cost less than 11k? where did you get the speakers proper, new? used off ebay? the bass speakers look new. just curious.

The reply was,

Drivers new from Bob Crites (BEC)

Right now, I would say I've spent $1600.

The cabinet is "overbuilt" for solidity. Weighs more than my La Scalas easily.

I might like to build some of these one day. If I was going to do that, I too would need the components i.e. tweeters, mid horns, and woofers. Are these available through Bob Crites? Or does one need to get these parts someplace and then get the drivers from Bob Crites?

Thank you for the help

Rich

[Deang]

Well, we've got some excellent stuff here on what a "driver" is!

The "driver" is the thingy attached to the narrow end of the horn shaped thingy. They either screw on, or bolt on. These type drivers are referred to as compression drivers.

The common drivers found on the midrange horn of the Klipschorn, LaScala, Belle Klipsch, pre-1985 Cornwall, and Heresy -- is either the K-55-V or K-55-M. The older K-55-V (and current K-55-X) is actually the Atlas PD5-VH. These are available from several places, as well as Bob Crites, who stocks them.

The Klipschorns and LaScalas use the K-400 metal horn or the K-401 composite. The Cornwall uses the K-600, the Belle uses the K-500, and the Heresy uses the K-700.

All of these speakers use the same tweeter, the K-77. The tweeter comes as a complete unit, with driver and horn/flange attached.

Horns and tweeters are typically picked up from other forum members who are involved in modding, and sell off the parts to finance the mods. Parts are often found on eBay as well. This goes for networks as well, but most pick up after market units from Al, Bob, or myself.

[BEC]

Just to add some unnecessary complexity to the subject, these drivers, speakers or transducers can also be called "motors" and we always say they are mounted on a motor board.

Bob

[lynnm]

To simplify things a tad:

These days the term driver typically refers to an entire loudspeaker which is designed to reproduce a specific range of frequencies. Thus the bass driver will be a cone type loudspeaker designed to reproduce the lowest frequencies. A midrange driver will be a cone type unit designed to reproduce the midrange frequencies and a tweeter driver will be designed to reproduce the highest frequencies.

When is describing a horn type system the term driver has a similar but slightly different meaning.

Horns are designed to amplify and direct any acoustic output fed to them. Thus in a Klipschorn the 15" cone type woofer's output is coupled to a folded horn which amplifies the output of the woofer ( ie drives ) the bass bin.

The midrange driver's output is amplified by the mid horn and the tweeter's output is amplified by the tweeter horn.

In conventional direct radiating systems the output from the woofer,midrange and tweeter are radiated directly from the individual speaker components to the listener.

In horn loaded systems the drivers provide an acoustic signal that is amplified by the horns to provide the final output that is heard by the listener.Due to the amplification provided by the horns these drivers are attached to it is possible to generate higher levels of sound output for a given amount of electrical input. This is another way of saying that horn loaded systems are more efficient than direct radiating systems.

Hope I haven't muddied the waters!