Speakers...?

Question

I understand how a speaker works to produce 1 frequency, with the magnet, positive and negative making the speaker go back and forth etc and how 20hz is basicly the speaker moving back and forth 20 times/second and 20,000hz is 20,000 times. BUT how does it produce more than 1 frequency at any given time?

Thanks.

Answer 1

A single speaker cone can only produce a single frequency at any one time. Although many speakers are either 2-way or three-way speakers. On these particular speakers there may be dual voice coils or a tweeter speaker attached to the speaker, so that the main speaker can produce the low/mid tones and the tweeter can produce the high tones using a built in crossover. It is probably this type of speaker which is confusing you how different frequencys can be produced at the same time. Ideally, there will be three or more individual speakers, tuned to certain frequencys; such as a subwoofer for frequencys <250Hz, mid-range speakers for frequencys 250Hz to 3-4Khz and then tweeter for frequencys above 3-4Khz, using crossovers to distribute the different frequencys to the different speakers. The sound from the three speakers will then be produced much better than a single 6x9" 3-way speaker.