Modeling the interior response of real loudspeakers with finite measurements

Loudspeaker array design for spatial soundfield reproduction is a popular research topic with a plethora of past work and potential applications. In soundfiled theory, reproduction algorithms are often developed assuming arrays of ideal point sources. However in practice, the directional characteristics of commercial loudspeakers are far from that of ideal point sources. Therefore, in order to successfully realize existing theoretical solutions for soundfield reproduction, it is crucial to understand and model the incident response of commercial loudspeakers used in the reproduction system as observed over the target region of reproduction. In this paper, we present initial work on formulating such a theoretical model, using a set of limited measurements in the reproduction region. A successful model shall enable the prediction of the loudspeaker's incident field away from the measurement points. This feature of the model is validated using extra measurements away from the initial ones