The loudspeakers are almost always the limiting element on the fidelity of a reproduced sound in either home or theater. The other stages in sound reproduction are mostly electronic, and the electronic components are highly developed. The loudspeaker involves electromechanical processes where the amplified audio signal must move a cone or other mechanical device to produce sound like the original sound wave. This process involves many difficulties, and usually is the most imperfect of the steps in sound reproduction. Choose your speakers carefully. Some basic ideas about speaker enclosures migh help with perspective.

Once you have chosen a good loudspeaker from a reputable manufacturer and paid a good price for it, you might presume that you would get good sound reproduction from it. But you won't --- not without a good enclosure. The enclosure is an essential part of sound production because of the following problems with a direct radiating loudspeaker:

Loudspeaker Details

An enormous amount of engineering work has gone into the design of today's dynamic loudspeaker. A light voice coil is mounted so that it can move freely inside the magnetic field of a strong permanent magnet. The speaker cone is attached to the voice coil and attached with a flexible mounting to the outer ring of the speaker support. Because there is a definite "home" or equilibrium position for the speaker cone and there is elasticity of the mounting structure, there is inevitably a free cone resonant frequency like that of a mass on a spring. The frequency can be determined by adjusting the mass and stiffness of the cone and voice coil, and it can be damped and broadened by the nature of the construction, but that natural mechanical frequency of vibration is always there and enhances the frequencies in the frequency range near resonance. Part of the role of a good enclosure is to minimize the impact of this resonant frequency.