7.6: Drivers and Frequency Bands

Understanding Sound From Ear to Engineer · LibreTexts

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    Drivers and Frequency Bands

    No single driver can reproduce the entire frequency spectrum.

    • Woofers handle low frequencies.
    • Midrange drivers reproduce middle frequencies.

    • Tweeters handle high frequencies.
      In large systems, subwoofers extend bass response, while super-tweeters handle the extreme highs.

    The term driver is derived from the ability of the speaker to drive air—that is, to move air molecules back and forth. This movement creates the pressure variations that our ears interpret as sound waves.

    To better understand how a driver works, it is helpful to see a cutaway diagram of a speaker cone:

    Cutaway view of a speaker with sections labeled with numbers
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): “Loudspeaker-bass”, Svjo, (CC BY-SA 3.0)
    1. Big Magnet (the magnetic structure that drives motion).
    2. Voice coil (the wire coil that interacts with the magnet to move the cone).
    3. Spider and Surround(the suspension that centers the voice coil and allows controlled movement).
    4. Cone (the diaphragm that vibrates the air)

    This page titled 7.6: Drivers and Frequency Bands was last modified on Fri, 01 May 2026 02:54:47 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Geoffrey Dunbar.