Ribbon driver technology and line array speaker systems

The combination of ribbon driver technology and linear array configuration provides clear sound performance advantages over traditional speaker technologies and driver arrangements. The use of ribbon drivers within a single enclosure in a linear array design results in a high-performance system. exceptionally compact.

Ribbon driver technology represents the next step in speaker design, ensuring enhanced clarity, ultra-low distortion and ultra-fast transient response.

Professional speaker systems that use ribbon driver technology are designed to cover a wide spectrum of applications, being deployed with optimal results in complex situations that require top-level power and sound quality and high levels of reliability.

Ribbon transducers, or ribbon drivers, contain a very strong and light metallized film ribbon (made of PEN or polyimide) on which printed circuit tracks have been arranged; This tape is suspended between a set of high-power neodymium magnets. They are direct radiators and do not require a horn to produce sound. When an alternating current is applied to the tape with an amplifier, the tape is alternately attracted and repelled by the magnets. This vibration of the tape generates sound waves directly. Current ribbon drivers are used for high and medium frequencies, offering wide and homogeneous horizontal dispersion, and offer high power endurance and output power.

Compression drivers and ribbon drivers

Traditionally, speaker design has been based on horn-loaded compression driver technology. This design has a metal diaphragm with a voice coil with a magnet around it. The components are mounted in a receptacle with an opening in front of the diaphragm at one end. The diameter of this opening is smaller than that of the diaphragm. A horn is mounted in the opening of the compression driver socket to control directivity.

When an alternating current is applied to the voice coil with an amplifier, it and the diaphragm to which it is connected are alternately attracted and repelled by the magnet. The vibration of the diaphragm generates sound waves that are compressed as they pass through the opening and then expand in the horn. This compression process tends to generate distortion and breakup effect at high frequencies. The interaction between sound waves and the speaker can generate additional distortion due to reflection and reverberation. Additionally, over time, the voice horn exhibits power compression with output losses in the high frequencies.

Compared to compression drivers, the extremely low mass of a ribbon diaphragm allows for a much faster transient response and for the speaker to be configured as a direct radiator. But in addition, sound waves from a ribbon driver are not compressed and then expanded in a speaker, which reduces distortion, eliminates high-frequency breakdown modes, and provides an extended high-frequency response. Furthermore, the fact that the ribbon drivers do not have a voice coil and instead use circuit tracks printed on the diaphragm prevents them from being affected by power compression.

Driver Dispersion Patterns

The sound produced by the point source of a compression driver gives rise to a spherical propagation pattern that extends uniformly in all directions. This requires the use of a horn that ensures control over directivity, which can lead to reflections and reverberations of negative effects within the horn as well as an increase in lobe effects.

En cambio, el sonido producido por la fuente lineal de un ribbon driver da lugar a un patrón de propagación cilíndrico, con una dispersión horizontal amplia y una dispersión vertical controlada. Además, los niveles de presión sonora (SPL) producidos por un sistema con fuente lineal se atenúan a un ritmo que es la mitad del de un sistema con fuente puntual (3dB por unidad de distancia en comparación con 6dB por unidad de distancia), generando un SPL más uniforme en el área de escucha.

Tecnología de matriz lineal

Los sistemas tradicionales de altavoces de matriz lineal se construyen apilando bafles idénticos uno sobre otro para formar una disposición vertical curvada o recta. Una disposición en matriz lineal puede proporcionar un patrón de dispersión cilíndrico muy direccional sobre un área extensa, y esa es la razón de que las matrices lineales se hayan convertido en el estándar del sector del sonido profesional para refuerzo de sonido y megafonía en aplicaciones tales como sonido en directo, grandes eventos, estadios o festivales al aire libre.

The superior audio performance offered by linear array technology is also useful for a variety of applications in fixed installations, such as cinemas, houses of worship, nightclubs and other venues.

Linear array based on ribbon drivers

The cylindrical propagation pattern of the ribbon drivers makes these transducers ideal for forming linear arrays. And by not requiring speakers, ribbon drivers can be much more compact than traditional horn-driven compression drivers. In short: they have the ideal characteristics to mount a compact linear array in a single box, in a straight or articulated design.

A linear array based on ribbon drivers constitutes a truly linear audio source, generating a cylindrical propagation pattern and capable of producing a very wide horizontal dispersion and a very controlled vertical dispersion, with a very consistent sound pressure level throughout the listening area. The combination, in this solution, of the superior sound performance of ribbon drivers with the performance and reliability factors of a linear array system means that it presents a whole series of advantages over traditional point source audio systems based on compression drivers.