Patent ID: 7953238

Claim:
A speaker assembly, comprising: a sound source that produces a sound signal; a housing having an input aperture, and a plurality of output apertures that are distributed substantially along a first direction, wherein the housing is acoustically coupled to the sound source to receive the sound signal at the input aperture and wherein the housing defines a plurality of acoustic paths having substantially equal path lengths that link the input aperture to the plurality of output apertures such that the sound signal is divided into a plurality of sound signals that are distributed in the first direction by travel along the plurality of acoustic paths such that the plurality of sound signals emanate from the plurality of output apertures at substantially the same time to combine to form a substantially coherent combined sound signal that is expanded in the first direction; wherein the housing defines the plurality of acoustic paths by one or more plugs having a first end biased towards the input aperture and a second end biased towards the output apertures and having a maximum width along the first direction at a location between the first and second ends, such that the first end of a given plug divides an existing path into two acoustic paths and wherein the second end of said given plug divides an existing output aperture into two smaller output apertures; and wherein the housing defines the outermost boundaries of the plurality of acoustic paths, such that a width dimension between the outermost boundaries along the first direction increases from a location that is substantially before the maximum width location of the one or more plugs, towards the second end to a location that is substantially beyond the maximum width location of the one or more plugs.