The spatial alignment of loudspeaker drivers on a baffle effects on system amplitude and phase responses

Recent trends in loudspeaker system design have shown a concern over the spatial alignment of drivers on the baffle of multi-way systems. The rationale behind these designs is to equalize the propagation delay time from each driver to the listening area in order to obtain a linear phase response or a signal at the listener that is said to be in temporal alignment. The spatial alignment of drivers on a baffle can also have an effect on the amplitude response of the system. In particular, the system response in the crossover regions can be strongly affected by the spatial alignment. These effects are described and the importance of spatial alignment on successful acoustic crossover between drivers is presented.