Voigt pipe
Encyclopedia
The Voigt pipe is a type of loudspeaker enclosure
that embodies a combination of transmission line, ported enclosure and horn characteristics. It is highly regarded by some speaker designers, as evidenced by established manufacturers such as Castle
, PHI and Cain & Cain. Due to its relatively high efficiency the design is frequently employed in full-range
loudspeaker designs. The concept is that the sound emitted from the rear of the loudspeaker driver is progressively reflected and absorbed along the length of the tapering tube, almost completely preventing internally reflected sound being retransmitted through the cone of the loudspeaker. The lower part of the pipe acts as a horn while the top can be visualized as an extended compression chamber. The entire pipe can also be seen as a tapered transmission line in inverted form, that is, widening rather than narrowing from top to bottom. The driver is usually positioned close to the middle of the baffle or slightly lower. Its relatively low adoption in commercial speakers can mostly be attributed to the large resulting dimensions of the speaker produced and the expense of manufacturing a rigid tapering tube. The Voigt pipe was designed in 1934 by Paul G.A.H. Voigt and is also referred to as a tapered quarter-wave pipe (TQWP) or tapered quarter-wave tube (TQWT).
Loudspeaker enclosure
A loudspeaker enclosure is a purpose-engineered cabinet in which speaker drivers and associated electronic hardware, such as crossover circuits and amplifiers, are mounted...
that embodies a combination of transmission line, ported enclosure and horn characteristics. It is highly regarded by some speaker designers, as evidenced by established manufacturers such as Castle
Castle (company)
Castle is a British manufacturer of hi-fi loudspeakers.Castle Acoustics was founded in 1973 and takes its name and its logo from the 11thC historic Skipton Castle, the North Yorkshire market town of Skipton having been Castle's home since its foundation...
, PHI and Cain & Cain. Due to its relatively high efficiency the design is frequently employed in full-range
Full-range
A full-range loudspeaker drive unit is defined as a driver which reproduces as much of the audible frequency range as possible, within the limitations imposed by the physical constraints of a specific design. Frequency range is of these drives is maximized through the use of a whizzer cone and...
loudspeaker designs. The concept is that the sound emitted from the rear of the loudspeaker driver is progressively reflected and absorbed along the length of the tapering tube, almost completely preventing internally reflected sound being retransmitted through the cone of the loudspeaker. The lower part of the pipe acts as a horn while the top can be visualized as an extended compression chamber. The entire pipe can also be seen as a tapered transmission line in inverted form, that is, widening rather than narrowing from top to bottom. The driver is usually positioned close to the middle of the baffle or slightly lower. Its relatively low adoption in commercial speakers can mostly be attributed to the large resulting dimensions of the speaker produced and the expense of manufacturing a rigid tapering tube. The Voigt pipe was designed in 1934 by Paul G.A.H. Voigt and is also referred to as a tapered quarter-wave pipe (TQWP) or tapered quarter-wave tube (TQWT).
See also
- AudiophileAudiophileAn audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
- Frequency responseFrequency responseFrequency response is the quantitative measure of the output spectrum of a system or device in response to a stimulus, and is used to characterize the dynamics of the system. It is a measure of magnitude and phase of the output as a function of frequency, in comparison to the input...
- High-end audioHigh-end audioHigh-end audio is a term used to describe a class of consumer home audio equipment marketed to audio enthusiasts on the basis of high price or quality, and esoteric or novel sound reproduction technologies. High-end audio can refer simply to the price, to the build quality of the components, or to...
- List of loudspeaker manufacturers
- Loudspeaker acousticsLoudspeaker acousticsLoudspeaker acoustics is a subfield of acoustical engineering concerned with the reproduction of sound and the parameters involved in doing so in actual equipment....
- Loudspeaker measurementLoudspeaker measurementLoudspeaker measurement is one of the most difficult aspects of audio quality measurement, and also probably the most relevant, since loudspeakers, because they are transducers, have higher distortion than other audio system components....
- Acoustic transmission line