Sound by P.G.A.H Voigt B Sc. A.M.I.E.E.

Extracted from the Lowther Voigt Radio, Season 1936-37, Page 20.

Edison's phonograph was among the earliest efforts at obtaining sound reproduction. He used a diaphragm and a horn.
The most modern equipment still uses a diaphragm and horn but improved to such an extent that the comparison of results is fantastic.

Sounds themselves vary from the deepest notes produced by organ pipes 16 or even 32 feet in length and big in proportion, to the tiniest squeak made by bats in flight. They vary from the simple tone of a tuning fork to the complicated sound when a symphony orchestra accompanied by a choir has reached a crescendo.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to reproduce the sound from one of these huge organ pipes perfectly without using a loudspeaker of similar dimensions.

A loudspeaker constructed of such enormous size would have very great difficulty in reproducing the infinitesimally small but enormously rapid movement which corresponds to the bat's squeak.

The whole art of loudspeaker design has therefore been to combine into one instrument the various conflicting requirements of reproducing all the notes and all the sounds without exaggerating specific regions and without introducing tone colouration due to the construction of the speaker.

In addition to this, a loudspeaker intended for domestic use must not be so large that it is impossible to get it into the room or that it is unsightly when it has got there.

There are many ways of producing sounds that remind the listener of the original, but in our opinion, such reproduction cannot be considered good enough. It is our ideal to reproduce the sound so accurately that the listener can be deceived into imagining that he is listening to the original sound.

We do not claim to have reached this ideal as yet, but we have got sufficiently close to it to make further progress increasingly difficult and not likely to take place until new materials or methods become available.

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