Sometimes a waveguide is even directly integrated into the speakers cabinet design itself.
This is more than just an aesthetic frivolity.
If so, congratulations youre a smarty pants.
But why, exactly, do you want to guide sound waves?
Why would waveguides guide waves?
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The chosen frequency range for this handoff is called crossover, but its not a perfect cutoff.
Its one thing to smooth the crossover region in the forward direction the speakers on-axis response.
Rarely does a speaker get it perfect.
This relationship between a speakers direct and off-axis sound is called a speakers directivity.
Having smooth directivity helps create a strong soundstage and maintain even tonality when speakers are placed in a room.
Which, you know, is most of them.
Its also worth noting that whilehorizontaldirectivity affects both soundstage and tonality, vertical directivity mostly affects tonality.
What does good directivity look like?
Even though it maintains a fairly linear direct sound, you might see a large dip at the crossover.
This means the sound that reflects off your walls will be dissimilar to the direct sound.
Your poor brain gets confused, and the speaker just doesnt sound as good as it could.
The soundstage will be fuzzier, and theres a good chance the speaker will sound recessed in the midrange.
Heres one more situation.
What happens if the direct sound is awful, but the directivity is still good?
In practice, this would likely lead to a speaker with uneven tonality but a good soundstage.
In contrast, you cant do much to fix a speaker with bad directivity.
No matter how good that initial bite is, its going to sour the overall experience.
So how does a waveguide help create smooth directivity?
This is where the guide part comes in the waveguides shape will significantly shape the tweeters directivity.
Without getting too technical, a good waveguide (not a trivial matter!)
is carefully designed to make the tweeters directivity match the woofer around the chosen crossover.
Is that all a waveguide does smoothing over the crossover?
In fact, some manufacturers simply prefer to stick to the term horn.
Especially if, you know, the waveguide looks like a horn.
Its exact properties depend precisely on its shape and the interface with the driver.
So are speakers with waveguides always better?
Waveguides arent necessary for good directivity performance.
Certainly, if the waveguide is well-designed and well-implemented, it is rarely a bad thing.
That said, waveguides often narrow directivity in the frequency range largely responsible for the perception of soundstage width.
Your mileage may vary, and this will depend on the specific recording youre listening to as well.
And of course, the waveguides implementation matters.
Thats pretty much always a good thing.
