Loudspeaker operation: The superiority of current drive over voltage drive

www.edn.com: This is an overview of the destructive effects that voltage drive has on the performance of electrodynamic loudspeakers. A more comprehensive treatment of the subject can be found in the book Current-Driving of Loudspeakers: Eliminating Major Distortion and Interference Effects by the Physically Correct Operation Method by Esa Meriläinen. Today, practically all available audio amplifier and loudspeaker equipment works on the voltage drive principle without significant exceptions. This means that the power amplifier acts as a voltage source exhibiting low output impedance and thus strives to force the voltage across the load terminals to follow the applied signal without any regard to what the current through the load will be.