Do you need the electrical signal from just one end of a microphone’s voice coil, or do you need both in order to drive a speaker?

Question

Is there a positive and a negative end to the voice coil, or is that not a thing?

In: 2

Answer 1

Both, you need a circuit. Pretty much all electronics is designed in circuits, which means two wires (if something is grounded like in a car then the car’s chassis a wire). Sound waves entering a microphone are converted into electrical energy by a transducer. In most microphones there is a little transformer to step up the voltage before it leaves the microphone. When sound leaves the microphone it is still a pair of wires. I believe there is a hot and a ground/common. You must talk both these wires up to a speaker to drive it.