Resonance identification in loudspeaker driver units: A comparison of techniques

A number of techniques with the scope of identifying loudspeaker cone resonances have been examined. Namely, the waterfall plot, the wavelet transform and the empirical mode decomposition scheme were compared on the basis of time-frequency resolution and damping estimation. The commonly used waterfall plot is only acceptable at the upper range of the acoustic spectrum. The wavelet transform is especially well suited for the analysis of transient signals from loudspeakers and is a significant improvement over the waterfall method. The newly developed EMD scheme has the highest potential in separating the modal components. By application of the EMD both instantaneous amplitude and frequency can be accurately determined.