Audio Myths: Feedback Cannot Fix What Has Already Happened

This article, originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter (#434), explores some practical experiments with Negative Feedback. "If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned that negative feedback cannot work, because you cannot correct something after it happened, I would be a rich man," says Jan Didden. "Yes, it can be hard to get your head around feedback circuits for audio amplifiers. Yet, all it takes is to look around you," he adds.

Imagine a new class of speaker diaphragm position sensors that enable audio engineers to reduce distortion and extend bass response from studio monitors, soundbars, smart speakers, and even smartphone microspeakers. With the precision of laser displacement instrumentation, this sensor is located between a stationary component of the speaker and an appropriate moving part to provide an error correction reference signal back to the amplifier. Well, that sensor has already been developed. ​This article was originally published in The Audio Voice weekly email newsletter.