Abstract: An acoustic driver has a voice coil in which adjacent turns of the coil are spaced apart. The driver is placed at one end of a foam-lined, elongated structure, such as a tube. An opposing end of the structure is, in one embodiment, enclosed by a wall that is connected to the structure by a suspension so that it moves in sympathy with the driver. In another embodiment, the structure cooperates with the acoustic driver to form one or more restrictive passageways confined around the driver's motor and an inner surface of the structure. The passageway(s) couple a volume of air in the structure to the exterior of the structure in a manner that reduces the transmission of acoustic energy without creating alternating pressure within the structure that interferes with the movement of the voice coil's diaphragm, at its maximum points of excursion.

Abstract: A loudspeaker having a flux gap defined by central pole and a magnet surrounding the central pole, includes a plurality of low-friction ridges extending from an outer surface of a the central pole. A voice coil, connected to the loudspeaker's diaphragm, is free to reciprocate within the flux gap. The ridges are linear and run generally in an axial direction, along a length of the pole where the voice coil reciprocates. Instead of rubbing directly against a metal pole, which has relatively high friction, the voice coil will rub against the ridges, thus reducing some of the noise that would otherwise occur due to rubbing. The voice coil includes a relatively stiff structure, created in part with a ceramic or epoxy material, that is coupled to a diaphragm, and a relatively flexible multiple layer structure at the terminating free end having dampening properties.