A sound baffle is a construction or device which reduces the strength (level) of airborne sound.

Sound baffles are a fundamental tool of noise mitigation, the practice of minimizing noise pollution or reverberation. An important type of sound baffle is the noise barrier constructed along highways to reduce sound levels at properties in the vicinity. Sound baffles are also applied to walls and ceilings in building interiors to absorb sound energy and thus lessen reverberation. 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 other means. Most single driver systems, such as those in radios, or small computer speaker designs, cannot reproduce the entire audio range.

Woofer is the term commonly used for a loudspeaker driver designed to produce low frequency sounds, typically from around 40 hertz up to about a kilohertz or higher. The name is from the onomatopoeic English word for a dog's bark, "woof" (in contrast to the name used for speakers designed to reproduce high-frequency sounds, tweeter). The most common design for a woofer is the electrodynamic driver, which typically uses a stiff paper cone, driven by a voice coil which is surrounded by a magnetic field. The voice coil is attached by adhesives to the back of the speaker cone. The voice coil and magnet form a linear electric motor. When current flows through the voice coil, the coil moves in relation to the frame according to Fleming's left hand rule, causing the coil to push or pull on the driver cone in a piston-like way. The resulting motion of the cone creates sound waves as it moves in and out. At ordinary sound pressure levels (SPL), most humans can hear down to about 20 Hz.[1] Woofers are generally used to cover the lowest octaves of the system's frequency range. In two-way loudspeaker systems, the drivers handling the lower frequencies are also obliged to cover a substantial part of the midrange, often as high as 1000 or 2000Hz; such drivers are commonly termed mid woofers. Since the 1990s, a type of woofer (termed subwoofer), which is designed for very low frequencies, has come to be commonly used in home theater systems and PA systems to augment the bass response; they usually handle the very lowest two or three octaves (i.e., from as low as 20 to perhaps 80 or 120 Hz). A subwoofer (or "sub") is a woofer, or a complete loudspeaker, which is dedicated to the reproduction of low-pitched audio frequencies known as the "bass". The typical frequency range for a subwoofer is about 20200 Hz for consumer products,[1] below 100 Hz for professional live sound,[2] and below 80 Hz in THX-approved systems.[3] Subwoofers are intended to augment the low frequency range of loudspeakers covering higher frequency bands. Subwoofers are made up of one or more woofers in a loudspeaker enclosure capable of withstanding air pressure while resisting deformation. Subwoofer enclosures come in a variety of designs, including bass reflex (with a port or passive radiator in the enclosure), infinite baffle, horn-loaded, and bandpass designs, representing unique tradeoffs with respect to efficiency, bandwidth, size and cost. Passive subwoofers have a subwoofer driver and enclosure and they are powered by an external amplifier. Active subwoofers include a built-in amplifier.[4]

The first subwoofers were developed in the 1960s to add bass response to home stereo systems. Subwoofers came into greater popular consciousness in the 1970s with the introduction of Sensurround in movies such as Earthquake, which produced loud low-frequency sounds through large subwoofers. With the advent of the compact cassette and the compact disc in the 1980s, the easy reproduction of deep and loud bass was no longer limited by the ability of a phonograph record stylus to track a groove,[5] and producers could add more low frequency content to recordings. As well, during the 1990s, DVDs were increasingly recorded with "surround sound" processes that included a Low-frequency effects (LFE) channel, which could be heard using the subwoofer in home theater systems. During the 1990s, subwoofers also became increasingly popular in home stereo systems, custom car audio installations, and in PA systems. By the 2000s, subwoofers became almost universal in sound reinforcement systems in nightclubs and concert venues. A loudspeaker driver that produces the frequency range from approximately 3005000 hertz is known as a mid-range. Midrange drivers are usually cone types or, less commonly, dome types, or compression horn drivers. The radiating diaphragm of a cone midrange unit is a truncated cone, with a voice coil attached at the neck, along with the spider portion of the suspension, and with the cone surround at the wide end. Cone midranges typically resemble small woofers. The most common material used for midrange cones is paper, occasionally impregnated and/or surface-treated with polymers or resins in order to improve vibrational damping. Other midrange cone materials include plastics such as polypropylene Cobex, or Bextrene, woven Kevlar, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or light metal alloys based on aluminium, magnesium, titanium, or other alloys. The radiating surface of a dome midrange is typically a 90-degree section of a sphere, made from cloth, metal or plastic film, with its suspension and voice coil co-located at the outer edge of the dome. Most professional concert midrange drivers are compression drivers coupled to horns. A very few midranges are electrostatic drivers, planar magnetic drivers, or ribbon drivers. A midrange driver is called upon to handle the most significant part of the audible sound spectrum, the region where the most fundamentals emitted by musical instruments and, most importantly, human voice, lie. This region contains most sounds which are the most familiar to the human ear, and where discrepancies from faithful reproduction are most easily observed. It is therefore paramount that a midrange driver of good quality be capable of low-distortion reproduction. Most television sets and small radios have only a single midrange driver or two for stereo sound. Since, in the case of television the most important aspect is the talking, it works out well. Since the ear is most sensitive to the middle frequencies produced by a midrange the driver and amplifier can both be low power while still delivering what is perceived to be good sound both in terms of volume and quality.
A tweeter is a loudspeaker designed to produce high audio frequencies, typically from around 2,000 Hz to 20,000 Hz (generally considered to be the upper limit of human hearing). Specialty tweeters can deliver high frequencies up to 100 kHz. The name is derived from the high pitched sounds made by some birds, especially in contrast to the low woofs made by many dogs, after which low-frequency drivers are named (woofers).

Audio crossovers are a class of electronic filter used in audio applications. Most individual loudspeaker drivers are incapable of covering the entire audio spectrum from low frequencies to high frequencies with acceptable relative volume and lack of distortion so most hi-fi speaker systems use a combination of multiple loudspeakers drivers, each catering to a different frequency band. Crossovers split the audio signal into separate frequency bands that can be separately routed to loudspeakers optimized for those bands. Active crossovers allow drivers covering different frequency ranges to be powered by separate amplifiers, a configuration known as bi-amping. Signal crossovers allow the audio signal is split into bands that are adjusted (equalized, compressed, echoed, etc.) separately before they are mixed together again. Some examples are: multiband dynamics (compression, limiting, de-essing), multiband distortion, bass enhancement, high frequency exciters, and noise reduction (for example: Dolby A noise reduction).
A passive crossover has no active filters as were used in the electronic crossover. It uses coils (inductors) and capacitors to cause a rolloff of the audio level above or below certain frequencies to prevent unwanted portions of the audio from reaching the various speakers. The simplest types use a single coil OR capacitor connected in series with the speaker. If a capacitor is used, the capacitor will tend to block the lower frequencies. If an inductor is used, it will tend to block the higher freqquencies. A capacitor would be used on smaller speakers and tweeters. An inductor would be used on larger speakers (midrange speakers and woofers). When using only an inductor or a capacitor in series with the speaker, the rate of rolloff is 6dB/octave. In a more complex configuration combining both coils and capacitors on each speaker, a steeper rolloff is obtainable.

What are active crossovers? In short, they electronic circuits that divide the audio spectrum up into discrete bands of frequencies and they function in place the passive crossovers found in loudspeakers. The underlying motivation for the switch to an active crossover is the improved accuracy and flexibility of the active crossover holds over the passive crossover. An equalization (EQ) filter is a filter, usually adjustable, chiefly meant to compensate for the unequal frequency response of some other signal processing circuit or system. An EQ filter typically allows the user to adjust one or more parameters that determine the overall shape of the filter's transfer function. It is generally used to improve the fidelity of sound, to emphasize certain instruments, to remove undesired noises, or to create completely new and different sounds. Equalizers may be designed with peaking filters, shelving filters, bandpass filters, plop filters or high-pass and low-pass filters.

Parametric equalizers are multi-band variable equalizers which allow users to control the three primary parameters: amplitude, center frequency and bandwidth. The amplitude of each band can be controlled, and the center frequency can be shifted, and bandwidth ("Q") can be widened or narrowed. Parametric equalizers are capable of making much more precise adjustments to sound than other equalizers, and are commonly used in sound recording and live sound reinforcement. Parametric equalizers are also sold as standalone outboard gear units. A variant of the parametric equalizer is the semi-parametric equalizer, also known as a sweepable filter. It allows users to control the amplitude and frequency, but uses a pre-set bandwidth of the center frequency. In some cases, semi-parametric equalizers allow the user to select between a wide and a narrow preset bandwidth. In the graphic equalizer, the input signal is sent to a bank of filters. Each filter passes the portion of the signal present in its own frequency range or band. The amplitude passed by each filter is adjusted using a slide control to boost or cut frequency components passed by that filter. The vertical position of each slider thus indicates the gain applied at that frequency band, so that the knobs resemble a graph of the equalizer's response plotted versus frequency. The number of frequency channels (and therefore each one's bandwidth) affects the cost of production and may be matched to the requirements of the intended application. A car audio equalizer might have one set of controls applying the same gain to both stereo channels for convenience, with a total of five to ten frequency bands. On the other hand, an equalizer for professional live sound reinforcement typically has some 25 to 31 bands, for more precise control of feedback problems and equalization of room modes. Such an equalizer (as shown above) is called a 1/3-octave equalizer (spoken informally as "third-octave EQ") because the center frequency of its filters are spaced one third of an octave apart, three filters to an octave. Equalizers with half as many filters per octave are common where less precise control is requiredthis design is called a 2/3-octave equalizer. Graphic equalizers are sometimes used by stereo owners to obtain a smiley face curve (also known as "mid scoop")[3] in which the lower and higher frequency channels are boosted relative to the midrange frequencies. This results in a graphical pattern resembling a cartoon "smile."

Electromagnetic Transducers:

Antenna converts electromagnetic waves into electric current and vice versa. Cathode ray tube (CRT) converts electrical signals into visual form Fluorescent lamp, light bulb converts electrical power into visible light Magnetic cartridge converts motion into electrical form Pick up (music technology) converts motion into electrical form Photodetector or Photoresistor (LDR) converts changes in light levels into resistance changes Tape head converts changing magnetic fields into electrical form Hall effect sensor converts a magnetic field level into electrical form only.