U. Sayin and O. Guasch: JASA Express Letters [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.

4812446] Published Online 11 July 2013

Directivity control and efficiency of parametric

loudspeakers with horns
Umut Sayin and Oriol Guasch
GTM-Grup de recerca en Tecnologies Mèdia, La Salle, Universitat Ramon Llull,
C/Quatre Camins 2, 08022 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
umut.sayin@barcelonamedia.org, oguasch@salle.url.edu

Abstract: This manuscript presents some recent results on directivity

control and efficiency of parametric loudspeakers utilizing horns. Horns
act both like an acoustic transformer and a directivity control method.
An experimental device has been built and measurements have revealed
that the horn has a clear influence on the audible sound levels and direc-
tivity of the parametric loudspeakers. When compared with a conven-
tional megaphone, a much more flat frequency response is obtained and
the resulting directivity is shown to be almost frequency independent.
C 2013 Acoustical Society of America
V
PACS numbers: 43.38.Ja, 43.25.Lj, 43.38.Hz [JL]
Date Received: February 26, 2013 Date Accepted: June 14, 2013

1. Introduction
In this work, a prototype consisting of a horn coupled to a parametric loudspeaker is
presented,1 and its performance is compared to that of a standard circular array of
parametric loudspeakers and to that of a conventional megaphone. The key motivation
for building such a device is as follows.
A horn is used to increase the radiation efficiency of a loudspeaker unit (the
driver), which is always small at low frequencies, even when using large diaphragms. A
horn acts as an “acoustic transformer” that provides impedance matching between the
relatively dense material of the driver and the air of low density. Besides, the purpose
of a horn is also to control the directivity of the loudspeaker unit. However, despite
improving the driver efficiency, commonly used horns like the exponential one present
the cut-off problem. Below the cut-off frequency, the throat impedance becomes pure
reactive and the horn transmits almost nothing. Above the cut-off frequency, wave
propagation changes from reactive to resistive and the horn becomes efficient.2,3 A
possible solution to partially remedy this situation lies in non-linear acoustics where
ultrasounds can be used to generate highly directive audible sounds covering all of our
hearing range. The basic idea consists of modulating an ultrasonic carrier wave with
an audible signal and emitting this primary field into air. Thanks to non-linear propa-
gation effects, self-demodulation of the primary field beam takes place resulting in a
highly directive audible secondary field. This phenomenon, discovered by Westervelt4
and known as the parametric array, has been around for decades now and several
practical applications have been recently developed to exploit it.5–7 The reader is
referred to Gan et al.8 for an updated review on the topic and, for instance, to
Hamilton9 for an introduction to the underlying physics. One of the problems associ-
ated with the practical use of parametric loudspeakers (i.e., ultrasonic transducers that
generate audible sound through the parametric array phenomenon) is that in order to
get acceptable sound levels, very high ultrasonic pressures are required. This, in turn,
usually involves the need to resort to large arrays of ultrasonic transducers and implies
a high power consumption.5
In view of the above exposed limitations of horns and parametric loud-
speakers, one may think of assembling them so as to partially overcome their particu-
lar drawbacks. On the one hand, if an array of parametric loudspeakers is used as the

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134 (2), August 2013 C 2013 Acoustical Society of America
V EL153
U. Sayin and O. Guasch: JASA Express Letters [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4812446] Published Online 11 July 2013

driver at the horn throat, this will ensure the signal it generates to be well above the
cut-off frequency where the horn is most efficient and directional. Thanks to self-
demodulation, the emitted audible sound will yet cover the whole hearing range. On
the second hand, the horn can provide the necessary increase in radiation efficiency
and transducer size that a parametric loudspeaker array usually needs. Besides, and as
previously mentioned, horns also serve to control directivity so one could expect that
the parametric loudspeaker directivity could benefit from it, too.
2. Parametric loudspeaker with horn
Let us next explain in some more detail why horns may be useful for a driver made of
parametric loudspeakers. Actually, one could wonder whether the use of horns could
substantially increase the electroacoustic efficiency of an ultrasonic transducer array and
how this would affect the generated secondary audible field. First, horns are more effi-
cient in the high frequency range and this includes ultrasonics. For a parametric loud-
speaker, it is known that the level of audible sound is dependent on the transducer sur-
face, the amplitude of ultrasonic modulated primary field, the modulation index, and
frequency.5,8 Given that the horn increases the transducer surface seen by the observer,
and so does the electroacoustic efficiency and the primary field amplitude (thanks to im-
pedance matching), this will automatically result in an augment of the secondary field
amplitude. Moreover, the inclusion of the horn also directly affects the impedance itself
for the secondary pressure field; as the radiation impedance drops, the level of audible
sound increases. Second, the directivity could be driven in this case by the throat and the
horn walls, depending on the ultrasonic transducer directivity characteristics. As a result,
a stronger beaming of both the primary and secondary field could take place.
After some tests, a final prototype device has been built consisting of a circular
array of 55 ultrasonic transducers that has been coupled to the throat of a horn,
which belonged to a conventional megaphone (see Fig. 1). The ultrasonic transducer
Murata (Kyoto, Japan) MA40S4S has been used for the array. This transducer has a
directivity of 80 deg, an output of 120 dB sound pressure level (SPL) at 30 cm, and a
resonance frequency of 40 kHz.
3. Measurements and results
3.1 Measurement setup
For comparison, measurements have been carried out for three different devices, namely,
the prototype consisting of a parametric loudspeaker array with horn (hereafter, termed
the ultramegaphone), the parametric loudspeaker without horn, and a megaphone with
a conventional driver [the Velleman (Gavere, Belgium) M10M model has been used].

Fig. 1. Drawing and photography of the tested prototype.

EL154 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134 (2), August 2013 U. Sayin and O. Guasch: Parametric loudspeakers with horns
U. Sayin and O. Guasch: JASA Express Letters [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4812446] Published Online 11 July 2013

Fig. 2. Directivities for the conventional megaphone and the parametric array without horn. Sound pressure
level variation with respect to acoustical axis values, in terms of angle and third octave frequency bands.

The usual procedure to characterize loudspeakers has been followed, which involves meas-
uring the frequency response, the directional characteristics, and the efficiency of the devi-
ces in an anechoic chamber. Each device has been set on a turntable and fed with white
noise. The input signal to the parametric loudspeaker has been modulated with single-side-
band amplitude modulation to minimize the harmonic distortion and increase the pressure
levels.7,8 The frequency response has been measured one meter away from the devices, in
1/3 octave bands, and for all directions using an incremental angle step of 5 .
An Agilent (Palo Alto, CA) 33120 function generator has been used to modu-
late the input signal of the parametric loudspeakers. Use has also been made of the
power amplifier Ecler (Barcelona, Spain) XPA 3000 due to its wide frequency range. A
multimeter has monitored the voltage level of the ultrasonic transducers Murata
MA40S4S, which can admit up to 15Vrms. A GRAS 40BF free-field microphone that
is fed through a B&K (Naerum, Denmark) Nexus Conditioning Amplifier to computer
has served to measure the ultrasonic and audible frequencies. The considered frequency
range for all tests is well above the cut-off frequency of the anechoic chamber, so that
free-field conditions apply.

3.2 Results
The measurement results are presented in Figs. 2 and 3. In these figures, the abscissae
represent the third octave frequency bands and the ordinate at zero degrees

Fig. 3. Directivities for the parametric array without horn and the ultramegaphone. Sound pressure level varia-
tion with respect to acoustical axis values, in terms of angle and third octave frequency bands.

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134 (2), August 2013 U. Sayin and O. Guasch: Parametric loudspeakers with horns EL155
U. Sayin and O. Guasch: JASA Express Letters [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4812446] Published Online 11 July 2013

Table 1. Overall SPL for each device.

Megaphone Parametric array Ultramegaphone

74.3 dB SPL 76.5 dB SPL 82.2 dB SPL

corresponds to the on-axis frequency response of the device. The pressure levels in the
figures have been normalized to the maximum on-axis level, so that the grayscale color
bars at the right of each figure indicate the level of variation with respect to it in dBs.
To be able to compare among devices, their on-axis SPLs have been chosen similar to
each other.
As it can be seen from Fig. 2(a), the original megaphone was mostly designed
for speech purposes and the highest levels are observed between 500–4000 Hz, which
basically corresponds to the human speech frequency range. The pressure levels are
considerably lower outside this range. A noticeable increment in the directivity can
also be appreciated for the speaking frequency range, whereas the horn has no visible
effects on directivity beyond 4000 Hz. Therefore, the horn proves useful as it acts as a
transformer increasing both the directivity and SPLs of the megaphone driver. Besides,
in Fig. 2(b), we have plotted the results for the parametric loudspeaker without horn.
As expected, the parametric loudspeaker presents a much narrower main lobe than the
megaphone, and a uniform on-axis frequency response covering the whole audible
range. At the lower part of the spectrum, where the downshift ratio becomes larger,10
some side-lobes can be observed. As known, the higher directivity and uniform
response of parametric loudspeakers can be beneficial for many applications.8
Let us next consider the parametric array with horn (ultramegaphone). First,
it is to be noted that special care should be taken when fitting the parametric loud-
speaker array into the horn’s throat. Otherwise, one could obtain worse directivity
results than those of the parametric loudspeaker without horn. Moreover, if the horn
is not rigid enough, it might resonate itself and retransmit the ultrasonic signal to the
external surface of the horn. This was, in fact, the case for initial attempts where tests
were performed covering the outer surface of the ultramegaphone with absorbent ma-
terial to try to avoid this effect [see Fig. 1(b)]. It was observed that the size and the
thickness of the horn clearly affects the level and directivity of the sound emitted out-
ward, playing an important role in the combination of parametric loudspeakers and
horns.
A definitive horn with appropriate throat and mouth widths, and with a rigid
enough body, was finally built to attain the desired results. The horn was pieced to-
gether with a larger parametric loudspeaker than the original one for perfect matching
through the throat. In this case, measurements were only made in the close vicinity of
the acoustical axis because the parametric array and the ultramegaphone generate very
focused beams. As observed from Figs. 3(a) and 3(b), using the horn improves the di-
rectivity quite abruptly resulting in a much more narrower sound beam with higher
SPLs, and keeping very uniform values in frequency up to 4000 Hz.
Finally, a test was performed to compare the SPLs each device could generate.
The same amount of power was supplied to them and the resulting on-axis overall
spectrum levels have been summarized in Table 1. As it can be seen from the table,
the highest level comes from the ultramegaphone as expected, since it provides the
most focused beam, followed by the parametric array without horn and the conven-
tional megaphone. The ultramegaphone increases the parametric loudspeaker without
horn level in about 6 dB and the conventional megaphone one in approximately 8 dB.

4. Conclusions
It has been shown that the coupling of horns to parametric loudspeakers (ultramega-
phone) has noticeable effects on the efficiency and directivity of the emitted audible

EL156 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 134 (2), August 2013 U. Sayin and O. Guasch: Parametric loudspeakers with horns
U. Sayin and O. Guasch: JASA Express Letters [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4812446] Published Online 11 July 2013

sound. However, care should be taken when selecting the horn, given that an inad-
equate choice of its size and rigidity could result in poor performance. For an appro-
priate horn, the resulting directivity and frequency response become better than those
of conventional megaphones.
The work presented in this Letter is to be viewed as a very initial step toward
the possibilities ultramegaphones could offer. Obviously, more detailed theoretical and
experimental work is needed to better understand how horns influence the primary and
secondary pressure fields of parametric loudspeakers, and how this could be fully
exploited to improve ultramegaphone designs for particular applications, such as those
found in sportive training, security, or safety.
Acknowledgments
This research has been carried out in the framework of the Megaultrafono project, Grant
No. TEC2010-11560-E, funded by the program Ingenio Explora from the Spanish
Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologıa.

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