MOVING-COIL TELEPHONE RECEIVERS AND MICROPHONES
E. C. Wente, A. L. Thuras · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1931
Moving-coil loud speakers are now extensively used in high quality radio-receiving sets and in talking motion picture equipment.The chief advantages of the moving coil over the moving armature driving mechanism are the absence of a static force, constancy of force-factor and electrical impedance throughout a wide frequency range, and freedom from non-linear distortion over a wide amplitude range.Because of these advantages it seems obvious that the moving coil structure can also be used profitably in head receivers and microphones where high quality is of prime importance.It has therefore been adopted in the instruments to be described, although some of the principles here formulated can conceivably be applied also to instruments with moving armatures.This paper is concerned primarily with the general principles of design.The more practical phases of the commercial design and construction of these instruments are discussed in a paper by W. C. Jones and L. W. Giles.The moving system of a head receiver must, in general, satisfy distinctly different requirements from that of a microphone.In the actual use of the receiver a small enclosed cavity is formed between the ear and the diaphragm.If there is to be no distortion the pressure developed within this enclosure per unit of current in the receiving coil should be independent of frequency, constancy of impedance of the coil being assumed.The pressure depends not only upon the amplitude of vibration of the diaphragm, but also upon the acoustic impedance of the cavity formed by the ear and the receiver.This impedance is such, if the cavity is entirely enclosed, that at low frequencies the pressures will be very nearly proportional to the displacement of the diaphragm.At higher frequencies it is of uncertain value and varies from ear to ear, but it appears, from unpublished data obtained by L. J. Sivian on a large number of ears, that constant amplitude of motion of the diaphragm per unit current throughout the frequency range is on the average the best condition to strive for in the design of a high quality receiver.We shall therefore assume that at any frequency the amplitude of motion of the diaphragm per unit current is a correct measure of the response of the receiver.It will be assumed also that the impedance of the cavity is without effect on the displacement of the diaphragm.For the receivers