Direct acoustic digital to analogue conversion with digital transducer array loudspeakers

A digital transducer array (DTA) loudspeaker which produces a quantised sound field directly from binary-weighted bit streams has been developed. Theoretical investigation shows that it is possible to generate an acoustic wavefront from an assemblage of air quanta provided that the basis functions are orthogonal. Other acoustic effects e.g. filtering are presented. Moving coil transducer frequency response measurements highlight its significance to the behaviour of the array by the use of current driving. Results obtained with newly developed stiff diamond diaphragms demonstrate the importance of the transient response to the conversion process. Further results and simulations are presented giving the DTA sound field distortion as functions of the bit stream processing algorithm as well as the array geometry