The present disclosure relates generally to speaker assemblies, and more specifically to speakers with ported enclosures.
Electronic devices such as desktop computers, computer monitors, laptops, smart phones, mobile gaming devices, and the like, may include audio capability. Generally, audio enabled electronic devices may include one or more microphones for receiving sound inputs and/or one or more speakers for outputting sound.
Speakers may generally be enclosed within a speaker enclosure, which may be sealed or ported. As may be known, speakers generate two sets of pressure waves, one forward and one aft of the speaker cone. In this regard and as its name implies, a sealed enclosure (also referred to as a closed box) is an enclosure which isolates the forward pressure waves from the aft waves generated by the speaker. In contrast, a ported enclosure typically includes at least one opening which may enhance the power efficiency of the speaker assembly and/or may aid in the reproduction of low frequency sounds by extending the low frequency range of the speaker enclosure. Thus, speakers adapted for the reproduction of sound at lower audible frequencies (e.g. woofers) are generally enclosed in a ported enclosure. However, while ported enclosures may be generally known in the art, conventional ported enclosures and speaker assemblies with such conventional ported enclosures may have numerous shortcomings, some or all of which may be addressed by the examples described herein.
A speaker assembly according to the present disclosure may include a speaker enclosure including a first opening and a second opening with a speaker unit mounted to the enclosure at the first opening and an acoustic damping mechanism mounted to the enclosure at the second opening. The acoustic damping mechanism may be mesh screen, the thickness, density and/or acoustic resistance properties of which may be varied, and which may, in some examples, be configured as a dual-layer mesh. That is, in some embodiments the mesh screen may include a first mesh and a second mesh, the first mesh bonded to the second mesh. The first mesh, which may be a fine mesh, may have a first acoustic resistance, which may range from about 16 Rayls to about 75 Rayls. The second mesh, which may be a coarser mesh, may have an acoustic resistance from about 1 Rayl to about 8 Rayls (e.g., the coarse mesh may be nearly acoustically transparent). In certain examples, the first or fine mesh may be selected to have an acoustic resistance of about 32 Rayls and the second or coarse mesh may be selected to have an acoustic resistance of about 8 Rayls.
In some examples, the first mesh may be made of a cloth material and the second mesh may be metallic. Other materials, for example a variety of polymers, may be used for the first and/or second mesh in other examples The second mesh may be formed from a plurality of metal wires, individual ones of which may have virtually any cross-section. In some examples, the metal wires may be circular, square, rectangular or other irregularly shaped cross sections, as may be desired. The cross sectional size and/or shape of the wires may be varied along a length of the wire to tailor the properties, for example the bending stiffness, of the mesh.
Electronic devices, such as audio generating device, display devices, and a variety of desktop, portable, or handheld computers may be implemented according to the examples herein to incorporate speaker assemblies as described. In some examples, an electronic device may include a speaker assembly, which include one or more speakers coupled to a speaker enclosure including a port and a mesh mounted across an opening of the port. The electronic device may further include circuitry for generating audio signals and transmitting the audio signals to the speaker. Additional circuitry, such as memory, processors, and display drivers may be included in certain electronic devices according to the present disclosure. The electronic device may also include a housing which substantially encloses the circuitry and the speaker assembly.
In some embodiments, the electronic device may include a first speaker assembly and a second speaker assembly, which may be implemented according to any of the examples herein. Speaker enclosures of one or more of the speaker assemblies may be regularly shaped (e.g. having a generally box shape) or may be irregularly shaped with the contours of the speaker enclosure being shaped to fit in a cooperating manner within the housing of the electronic device. For example, the housing may include a curved surface and the speaker enclosure of the speaker assembly may be mounted against the housing so as to define an enclosed space between the speakers of the assembly and the curved surface of the housing. Other combinations may be implemented, some of which will be described in further detail below.
The foregoing and other features of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only several examples in accordance with the disclosure and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity and detail through use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative examples described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other examples may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readily understood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in the Figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are implicitly contemplated herein.
The present disclosure relates generally to speaker assemblies, and more specifically to speakers with ported enclosures.
In general, as the velocity of the air moving in or out of the port 130 increases, the turbulence of the airflow may also increase, resulting in undesirable noise. In some instances, undesirable turbulence may be reduced by shaping the inlet 135 to smooth air flow over the edges of the inlet. For example, in conventional speakers, the bass reflex port may be rounded at the inlet and/or outlet of the bass reflex port so as to minimize undesirable turbulence. However, tailoring the bass reflex port in this manner may not always be practical.
In the alternative or in combination with shaping the inlet and/or outlet, a damping mechanism 140 may be included at the inlet 135, which may slow down the flow of air and/or smooth out the airflow passing through the inlet of port 130. The damping mechanism 140 may, in some examples, be implemented as a mesh screen 142. The damping mechanism (e.g. mesh screen 142) may be placed across the inlet 135 substantially flush with exterior surfaces of the enclosure, or in other examples, the mesh screen 142 may be recessed within the port 135. The mesh screen 142 may include one or more layers, as will be further described.
Referring now to
While the first mesh 145 (e.g. fine mesh) may advantageously reduce turbulence at the inlet 135 (e.g. by slowing down the flow of air), the fine mesh may be prone to out of plane deflections (as shown in dashed lines in
To reduce or eliminate problems associated with out of plane deflections of the first mesh 154, a dual-layer mesh configuration may be implemented as described herein and shown in
The coarse mesh 155 may be formed from virtually any type of suitable material, such as aluminum, steel, or other metallic materials, ceramics, and plastics, and may be implemented according to a variety of form factors. In some examples, the coarse mesh 155 may be made of a rigid plastic material, such as polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC/ABS) blend plastic, which may be configured to provide the desired stiffness in the out-of-plane direction. The coarse mesh 155 may be implemented from a flat sheet of material through which the openings are formed (e.g. a speaker grill configuration). The geometry of the openings 158 (see
In some examples, the coarse mesh 155 may be formed from a plurality of metal strands or wires 156. The wires 156 may be implemented to have virtually any transverse cross section. In the context of this description the transverse cross section of the wires 156 is meant to be the cross section taken along the direction of the airflow (as shown by the arrows F in
The fine mesh 145 may be welded or bonded to the coarse mesh 155, for example using an adhesive, and the dual-layer mesh structure (e.g. mesh screen 142) may be coupled to the port 130 using an adhesive or other conventional fastening techniques. In some embodiments, the dual-layer mesh structure may be attached to the enclosure 120 using a mesh holder 160. The mesh holder 160 may be implemented as a pair of plates, each having an aperture 162 with a shape corresponding to the shape of the inlet 135. The dual-layer mesh may be placed across the aperture and retained between a pair of plates of the mesh holder 160. The mesh holder and dual-layer mesh secured thereto may be attached to the inlet using an adhesive, mechanical fasteners, or the like.
As will be understood, the specific examples of damping mechanisms 140 described herein are provided for illustration and are not to be taken in a limit sense and other variations are possible. For example, the damping mechanism 140 may be implemented as a single mesh screen, which is configured to provide the desired acoustic damping and stiffness when subjected to the pressure waves generated by the speaker. In some instances, the damping mechanism 140 may include a single, generally stiff mesh or grill with low acoustic resistance. The single mesh or grill may be coated with an acoustic damping material, for example by being sprayed with polyurethane foam (e.g. foam rubber) or any other soft polymeric material. The polymeric material sprayed or coated onto the grill may provide acoustic damping while the stiff understructure of the grill prevents flexing of the damping mechanism 140 under the loading of the pressure waves.
The one or more speakers 202, 204 may be incorporated into the speaker assembly 220 according to any of the examples of the present disclosure. For example, a first speaker 202 and/or a second speaker 204 may be mounted to the speaker enclosure 230 through speaker openings 206, 206′. With the speakers mounted to the enclosure, a generally closed chamber is defined inside the enclosure 230. As previously described, the enclosure 230 may include another opening 222 (e.g. a port or vent) which allows air or other medium to move in or out of the enclosure 230 when the speaker cones are oscillating responsive to the drivers. Signals may be transmitted to the drivers via one or more cables 209, which may pass through a hole 206 in the enclosure 230. In this regard, cable 209 penetrates the enclosure 230 to electrically couple the driver with electronics exterior of the enclosure. In some examples, the cable 209 may be secured against the enclosure 230, for example by being provided in a groove or channel formed along an exterior surface of the enclosure 230.
The speaker assembly 220 may be mounted to the housing 210 of the device 200 and arranged such that an exterior surface 232 of the enclosure is mounted against the back wall 205 of the housing 210 defining an enclosed space between the speaker and the housing. The speaker, which in this example faces the back wall 205 is provided in acoustic communication with the speaker grill 230. One or more sealing structures 224, 226, such as foam gaskets, may be used to seal the enclosure against the back wall 205. For example, the sealing structure 224 (e.g. foam gasket) may be attached to the surface 230 of the enclosure with a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) or another type of adhesive. According to some examples, and as further described below, one or more of the sealing structures may be adapted to aid with the installation of the speaker assembly 220 within the housing 210.
As previously described, the speaker enclosure 230 may include a port or vent 222 (e.g. a bass reflex port) which is spaced apart from the one or more speaker openings 206, 206′. As will be understood, the bass reflex port may allow pressure waves aft of the speaker cone to travel out of the speaker enclosure 210, enhancing certain aspects of the performance of the speaker assembly 220. The bass reflex port need not be coplanar or aligned in any manner relative to the speaker openings and/or speaker cones. In this regard, the bass reflex port can be formed through any one of the walls of the speaker enclosure 230. In the present example, the port 222 is provided through a side wall of the enclosure 230. Other locations may be used, in other embodiments.
Referring to the example shown in
During assembly of the computer 210, the speaker assembly 220 may be slid into position between the back cover (e.g. back wall 205) and chin 210. However, while sliding the speaker assembly 220 in position, roughness or other features of the mating surfaces may cause the surfaces to tug against one another and may result in unintentional contact with one or more of the speaker cones. To address this problem, a friction reducing mechanism 228 may be used to ease the assembly process. The friction reducing mechanism 228 may be implemented as a lubricated layer applied to one or more surfaces of the sealing structure 224. In other examples, the friction reducing mechanism 228 may be a film of low-friction material, for example Mylar film, which may be adhered to the sealing structure 224. Other variations may be used for reducing the friction between the surface contacting and/or sliding against one another during the insertion of the speaker enclosure 230 within the computer housing 210.
Referring now to
In a next step or simultaneously, one or more sealing structures, for example foam gaskets or acoustical damping panels or pads may be attached to certain portions of the exterior of the enclosure (see box 630), for example for the purpose of sealing the speaker against a housing of an electronic device. The step of attaching sealing structures may include applying a friction reducing layer onto at least one of said sealing structures. The friction reducing layers may be a Mylar film adhered to the sealing structure or a lubricant applied to a surface of the sealing structure. The speaker assembly (e.g. enclosure, speakers, and other components attached thereto) may then be inserted into and attached to the housing of the electronic device, as shown in box 640. As will be appreciated, additional steps may be added and one or more of the steps recited above may be performed out of sequence or omitted altogether without departing from the scope of the present invention.
While various aspects and examples have been disclosed herein, other aspects and examples will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and examples disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
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