Loudspeaker

A loudspeaker, speaker, or speaker system is an electroacoustical transducer that converts an electrical signal to sound. The term loudspeaker can refer to individual transducers (known as drivers), or to complete systems consisting of a enclosure incorporating one or more drivers and electrical filter components. Loudspeakers (and other electroacoustic transducers) are the most variable elements in a modern audio system and are usually responsible for most audible differences when comparing systems.

To adequately reproduce a wide range of frequencies, most loudspeaker systems require more than one driver, particularly for high sound pressure level or high accuracy. Individual drivers are used to reproduce different frequency ranges. The drivers are named subwoofers (very low frequencies), woofers (low frequencies), mid-range speakers (middle frequencies), tweeters (high frequencies) and sometimes supertweeters optimized for the highest audible frequencies.

The terms for different speaker drivers differ depending on the application. In 2-way loudspeakers, there is no "mid-range" driver, so the task of reproducing the midrange sounds falls upon the woofer and tweeter. Home stereos use the designation "tweeter" for high frequencies whereas professional audio systems for concerts may designate high frequency drivers as "HF" or "highs" or "horns".

When multiple drivers are used in a system, a "filter network", called a crossover, separates the incoming signal into different frequency ranges, and routes them to the appropriate driver. A loudspeaker system with n separate frequency bands is described as "n-way speakers": a 2-way system will have woofer and tweeter speakers; a 3-way system is either a combination of woofer, mid-range and tweeter or subwoofer, woofer and tweeter.