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CN-116018822-B - Acoustic wave guide

CN116018822BCN 116018822 BCN116018822 BCN 116018822BCN-116018822-B

Abstract

An acoustic waveguide in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present technique includes a housing having a proximal end with an inlet aperture and a distal end with an outlet aperture, and a mounting flange disposed at the proximal end and configured to acoustically couple a driver to the inlet aperture. A plurality of sound passages extend through the housing and acoustically couple the inlet aperture to the outlet aperture. Each channel at least partially defining a sound path has an acoustic length, wherein at least one sound path of the plurality of channels has a bend angle exceeding 180 degrees.

Inventors

  • Jerome Halley
  • Chris smallen

Assignees

  • QSC公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20210325
Priority Date
20200325

Claims (13)

  1. 1. An acoustic waveguide comprising: A housing having a proximal end with an inlet aperture and a distal end with an outlet aperture, and wherein the depth of the acoustic waveguide is the distance between the proximal end and the distal end; a mounting flange disposed at the proximal end and configured to acoustically couple the driver to the inlet aperture, and A plurality of acoustic channels extending through the housing and acoustically coupling the inlet aperture to the outlet aperture, each acoustic channel defining a sound path having an acoustic length, wherein the sound paths of the plurality of acoustic channels each comprise an arcuate bend, wherein the acoustic length of each sound path of the plurality of acoustic channels is substantially equal to each other sound path; Wherein the acoustic waveguide further comprises a plurality of inlet channels disposed between the inlet aperture and the plurality of channels and acoustically coupling the inlet aperture and the plurality of channels, wherein the inlet channels divide the inlet aperture into at least two sound paths, wherein the plurality of channels comprises a plurality of primary channels; Wherein the acoustic waveguide further comprises a plurality of secondary channels disposed between and acoustically coupling the inlet channel and the plurality of primary channels, wherein the secondary channels divide each of the inlet channels into at least two sound paths, and Wherein each primary channel comprises a flared portion downstream of the arcuate bend, wherein each flared portion has a flared surface, wherein the depth of the flared portions of the plurality of primary channels is between about 80% and 87% of the depth of the acoustic waveguide.
  2. 2. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein each of the secondary channels changes the direction of the corresponding acoustic path in a range from about 70 ° to 90 ° from perpendicular to the direction of the mounting flange.
  3. 3. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein the plurality of primary channels divide each of the secondary channels into at least two sound paths.
  4. 4. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein at least one of the acoustic paths of the plurality of primary channels has a bend radius in the range of about 0.25 inches to 0.8 inches.
  5. 5. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein the outlet aperture is partitioned such that each of the plurality of primary channels is acoustically coupled to a separate portion of the outlet aperture.
  6. 6. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein the acoustic waveguide is mirror symmetric about a plane perpendicular to a surface of the mounting flange bisecting the inlet aperture, and wherein the plane is disposed vertically such that a vector across a width of the acoustic waveguide is orthogonal to the plane.
  7. 7. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein the flared portion of each of the plurality of primary channels flares laterally and/or vertically outward from the bending region to the distal end, and wherein the lateral flare of each of the plurality of primary channels defines a flare angle at the distal end portion of the plurality of primary channels of between about 10 ° and 20 °, between about 12 ° and 18 °, or between about 14 ° and 16 °.
  8. 8. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein each acoustic path is an arcuate path defined by at least one bend having a radius of curvature and having a path width at the at least one bend, wherein the radius of curvature is equal to or greater than twice the path width at the bend.
  9. 9. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein the inlet aperture of the housing is a first inlet aperture of the housing and the housing has a second inlet aperture, the outlet aperture is a first outlet aperture and the distal end has a second outlet aperture; Wherein the driver is a first driver and the mounting flange is a first mounting flange configured to acoustically couple the first driver to the first inlet aperture; a second mounting flange is disposed at the proximal end and configured to acoustically couple a second driver to the second inlet aperture; The plurality of acoustic channels including a plurality of first acoustic channels extending through the housing and acoustically coupling the first inlet aperture to the first outlet aperture, and A plurality of second sound channels extend through the housing and acoustically couple the second inlet aperture to the second outlet aperture, Wherein each of the plurality of first and second channels has a curved region at an intermediate location along the acoustic channel and a flared portion downstream of and extending from the curved region to the exit orifice, wherein the flared portion extends along between about 80% and 87% of the depth of the housing.
  10. 10. The acoustic waveguide of claim 9, wherein a ratio of a depth of the housing to a width of the outlet aperture is in a range of about 1:1.2 to 1:2, in a range of about 1.4 to 1:1.8, about 1:1.44, or about 1:1.73.
  11. 11. The acoustic waveguide of claim 9, wherein the acoustic length of the acoustic channel is between about 120% and 200% of the depth of the housing, between about 130% and 145% of the depth of the housing, between about 138% and 141% of the depth of the housing, about 139.6% of the depth of the housing, or about 136.7% of the depth of the housing.
  12. 12. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, further comprising at least one compression driver connected to the mounting flange and configured to generate and direct sound into the inlet aperture.
  13. 13. The acoustic waveguide of claim 1, wherein the laterally flared portion of each of the plurality of primary channels extends along 57% to 73% of the total length of the acoustic path of the respective primary channel.

Description

Acoustic wave guide Cross reference to related applications The present application claims priority and benefit from U.S. provisional application No.62/994,754, filed 3/25/2020, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field The present disclosure relates generally to multipath acoustic waveguides. Background In audio speakers, one factor in determining sound quality is the Sound Pressure Level (SPL), which generally depends in part on the size of the speaker relative to the distance between the speaker and the listener. Generally, larger distances require larger speaker sizes. However, there are practical limitations to the size of large speakers. One solution is to use a smaller size speaker array to achieve a similar acoustic effect because sound waves from the individual smaller speakers can be combined to produce a combined sound wave that behaves similarly to sound waves emitted from a single large speaker. It is generally recognized that the spacing between two adjacent speakers needs to be less than the wavelength of the associated sound wave. The wavelength of the wave is determined by the wave speed divided by the wave frequency. The sonic velocity in room temperature air is about 1130 feet/second. For example, for low frequency audio sounds having a frequency of 200Hz, the corresponding wavelength is about 68 inches. Similarly, mid-frequency audio sounds at 2000Hz correspond to wavelengths of about 6.8 inches. An exemplary high frequency audio sound having a frequency of 20000Hz has a wavelength of about 0.68 inches. For high frequency sound, it is difficult to achieve such a small distance between speakers. Such relatively small wavelengths pose a problem in providing the desired spacing between tweeters. Acoustic waveguides have been developed to provide improved sound distribution from selected high frequency drivers. Examples of such improved waveguides include the waveguides and related techniques set forth in U.S. patent nos. 7,177,437,7,953,238,8,718,310,8,824,717 and 9,204,212, and U.S. patent application publication No. us2019-0215602, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. While these waveguides provide significant improvements, particularly for the transmission of high frequency audio sounds, there is still a need to distribute the emission of sound waves across the front of the speaker, creating a planar or cylindrical wave front. Drawings Fig. 1 is a front view of an acoustic waveguide in accordance with an embodiment of the present technique. Fig. 2 is a top rear perspective view of the acoustic waveguide of fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a left side view of the acoustic waveguide of fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional plan view of the acoustic waveguide taken substantially along line 4-4 of fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a front view of an acoustic waveguide in accordance with another embodiment of the present technique. Fig. 6 is a top rear perspective view of the acoustic waveguide of fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a left side view of the acoustic waveguide of fig. 5. Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional plan view of the acoustic waveguide taken substantially along line 8-8 of fig. 5. Fig. 9A and 9B are schematic detailed views of a lateral splay (flat) profile and a vertical splay profile, respectively, of the acoustic waveguide of fig. 1. Fig. 10A and 10B are schematic detailed views of the lateral and vertical splay profiles, respectively, of the acoustic waveguide of fig. 5. Detailed Description The technology disclosed herein relates to acoustic waveguides and associated systems. Several embodiments of the present technology relate to an acoustic waveguide configured to be coupled to one or more selected tweeter drivers and including a channel configured to direct sound waves generated by the speaker drivers through the channel and out the front, distal end of the acoustic waveguide. Specific details of the present technology are described herein with respect to fig. 1-8. Although many embodiments are described with respect to acoustic waveguides, it should be noted that applications and embodiments other than those disclosed herein are within the scope of the present technology. Further, embodiments of the present technology may have different configurations, components, and/or processes than those shown or described herein. Moreover, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that embodiments of the technology may have configurations, components, and/or processes other than those shown or described herein, and that these and other embodiments may have no several configurations, components, and/or processes shown or described herein without departing from the technology. Fig. 1-4 illustrate an acoustic waveguide 100 in accordance with embodiments of the present technique. The waveguide 100 of the illustrated embodiment is configured to receive a speaker driver 101 (fig. 3), such as a high frequency compression driver, which is coupled to a source signal gene