Electroacoustic transducers represent one of the crucial materials used in the construction of loudspeaker arrays. The dispersion in their parameters may influence the performance of a speaker set. Parametric loudspeaker arrays and omnidirectional sound sources have been used for years. However, the possible influence of transducer manufacturing tolerances on the arrays' performance has not been investigated. In previous research, the sources of possible dispersion in acoustic measurements carried out with omnidirectional sources were studied, pointing out that the problems with sound sources may be a significant reason behind the small measurement repeatability in standards. This paper investigated the measurement of several common types of miniature speakers, using 10 pieces of each type and investigating the influence of their parameter dispersion in electric and acoustic ways. Numerical simulations of omnidirectional sound sources were performed to investigate the drivers' dispersion influence sensitivity. The results provided proof of the small-signal parameter dispersion reaching 20% of the variation. The acoustic measurements show that the loudspeakers may differ in sensitivity parameters by up to 4 dB in 10 transducer tests. The analysis of an example multitransducer array indicated that a dispersion of a sensitivity higher than 1 dB might lead to significant misperformance in constructed arrays and measurement deviations with this type of array.
Keywords: beamforming; directivity simulations; drivers; loudspeaker tolerances; quality assurance and control; sensors; transducer manufacturing.