Acoustic suspension

Acoustic suspension is a loudspeaker cabinet design that uses one or more loudspeaker drivers mounted in a sealed box. Acoustic suspension systems reduce bass distortion, which can be caused by stiff suspensions required on drivers used for open cabinet designs.

A compact acoustic suspension loudspeaker was described in 1954 by Edgar Villchur, and it was brought to commercial production by Villchur and Henry Kloss with the founding of Acoustic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1960, Villchur reiterated that: The first aim of the acoustic suspension design, over and above uniformity of frequency response, compactness, and extension of response into the low-bass range, is to reduce significantly the level of bass distortion that had previously been tolerated in loudspeakers. This is accomplished by substituting an air-spring for a mechanical one. Subsequently, the theory of closed-box loudspeakers was extensively described by Richard H. Small.