4

The distributed mode loudspeaker (DML)

 

Graham Bank

4.1 Introduction

It is only rarely that a paradigm shift happens in any branch of science. It is more than a little surprising, therefore, that a new class of acoustic radiator should come into being. What is not too surprising is that it should come from a field that is outside the traditional loudspeaker and headphone arena.

When Ken Heron at DERA (Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) applied for his new invention1, which describes a very high stiffness aluminium honeycomb panel designed to be used as a limited bandwidth public address loudspeaker, he showed that a ‘resonant multi-modal radiator’ with limited bandwidth could be used as a loudspeaker. At the time Dr Heron was ...

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