Patent ID: 7826622
Filing Date: 2010-11-02
Classification: H04R

Abstract:
1. A loudspeaker system for receiving an incoming electrical signal and generating a sound field, the sound field being directional and having a substantially constant beamwidth across an operational frequency range, the loudspeaker system comprising: a housing; a curved mounting plate having an outer surface forming at least a portion of an exterior wall of the housing, where the outer surface has constant curvature over a range of angles from −A at a first end of the mounting plate to +A at a second end of the curved mounting plate in a plane perpendicular to the outer surface, where the range of angles are measured from a point spaced away from the curved mounting plate and on an axis perpendicular to a center of the curved mounting plate; an array of speaker drivers disposed within the housing and sequentially mounted on the curved mounting plate between the first end and the second end along a linear arc in the plane perpendicular to the outer surface, each speaker driver of the array being mounted on the curved mounting plate at a respective angle Ax that is greater than angle −A and less than angle +A and being mounted on the curved mounting plate to produce acoustic waves in a radially outward direction away from the linear arc; and a plurality of attenuation circuits coupled to the array of speaker drivers so that each speaker driver of the array of speaker drivers is included in one of the attenuation circuits based on the respective angle Ax, where each of the attenuation circuits is configured to independently receive and attenuate the incoming electrical signal with a predetermined quantized attenuation value so that each speaker driver included in a respective one of the attenuation circuits is substantially equally attenuated.