Ribbon speaker system

Abstract

The speaker system consists of a single housing containing a tweeter, mid-range and woofer transducer units. The tweeter unit consists of an elongated, aluminum ribbon positioned vertically and connected to the top and bottom of a rigid elongated frame. The ribbon is located between sets of split magnets which are designed to provide a shaped magnetic field that helps center the ribbon in a direction perpendicular to its length. Additional electromagnetic centering is provided by flat ribbon conductors located on the surfaces of the magnets sets which return the current carried by the ribbon. The mid-range transducer is similar to the tweeter transducer in construction except that the edges of the mid-range ribbon are mechanically attached to the frame by foam strips. In addition, the mid-range ribbon is transversely corrugated at variable slant angles relative to ribbon longitudinal axis. The woofer transducer consists of an elongated, trapezoidal, corrugated aluminum ribbon attached to a non-vibrating frame. In order to provide a single electrical path, the ribbon is divided into a serpentine path by a series of cuts. To prevent undesirable auto effects, the ribbon is tensioned in a transverse direction.