How are headphones with single drivers able to make sounds that are “multiple sounds at the same time?´´

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So from what I know, the drivers vibrate at a given wavelength and that makes a sound. That makes sense to me of how you can create voice for example. But how does multiple instruments + voice in one driver work? You hear all them seperately but at the same time?

To me this sounds like a monitor pixel making more than 1 pixel at once.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

How does sound work?, how do speakers work?, how can the sound of an orchestra be contained in a single waveform? how can one vinyl record groove have so many sounds? … Variations of your question are asked here every week or two, and usually are removed with a “search first” admonition.

[This animated explanation of how sound & speakers work](https://youtu.be/RxdFP31QYAg?t=156) is probably is all you need. It’s a video companion to the [explanation on the Animagraffs website](https://animagraffs.com/loudspeaker/).

Anyway, since a top-level comment has to be an answer:

Everything you hear is just vibrations of the air molecules at your eardrum (plus some vibrations conducted through your skull & jaw). The sounds of different instruments are combinations of relatively simple vibrations, and they all merge into one very complex vibration as they arrive at the same time in your ears. Your eardrum converts the sounds to electrical signals for your brain, which eventually learns to identify separate sound sources and roughly where they are coming from.

To envision two frequencies combining into one complex motion, wave your hand slowly moving back and forth, mimicking the motion of the air as it transmits a low bass tone. Keep doing that, and add a fast tremor to your hand, mimicking a higher-pitched tone “riding on top of” the lower tone. That’s all there is to it; it’s what the instrument, the speaker, the air, and your eardrum are doing: making unique combinations of simple vibrations.

How far your hand moves back and forth, relative to a neutral center position, is the amplitude, and it correlates with sound intensity, which we perceive as “volume” or “loudness”. How fast your hand moves back and forth is the frequency (expressed in Hertz, e.g. 20 Hz means 20 times per second), and it correlates with pitch. Actual sound sources just vibrate the air much faster and with much less amplitude than your hand ever could, and they normally contain many pitches combined.

A speaker only has to make the air at your ears vibrate like that, and most full-range speakers can do a pretty good job. Your brain is what recognizes and distinguishes between instruments and other consistent sources of sound. How *that* works in the inner ear and brain is more difficult to explain, but is not really what you asked.

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