A panel-form microphone characterised by a distributed mode acoustic member (12) and a transducer (63) coupled wholly and exclusively to the member to produce a signal in response to resonance of the member due to incident acoustic energy.

A boundary-layer microphone may obtain a frequency independent, hemispherical directional characteristic with a high tonal quality. The geometrical configuration of the mounting plate and the installed location of the membrane within the surface of the mounting plate are chosen so that a flat frequency response is obtained at the installed location of the membrane, i.e., the superposition of the incident primary sound field on the secondary sound field created by diffraction will not cause any deviation from a flat frequency response and a smooth, hemispherical polar pattern. The mounting plate may be triangular. The membrane may be installed in the vicinity of the center of gravity of a scalene triangle.

An electroacoustic transducer with attenuated effective output irregularities caused by intrinsic normal modes of oscillation. What stands out, as a structural property of a preferred embodiment, is a sandwich assembly, having an oscillating medium of layered components suspended between two rigid baffles, with a hinged baffle extension supporting the device in upright position. An opening, asymmetrically positioned in each of said two rigid baffles, exposes to the ambient medium a driven and asymmetrically positioned antinode belonging to a predetermined mode pattern of the oscillating medium. The resulting asymmetrical and partial coupling of the oscillating medium with the ambient medium limits occurrences of irregularities in effective output. Similarly, the asymmetrical and partial driving of the oscillating medium leads to a relatively high number of normal modes simultaneously excited. Moreover, perturbations in boundary conditions of the oscillating medium give rise to additional superposed standing waves, for a further increase in the number of normal modes simultaneously excited. The resulting higher density of normal modes limits perception of irregularities in effective output. This combined process of limiting both occurrences and perception of irregularities stands out as a functional property of the device for an effective output with improved tonal quality.

A panel-form loudspeaker (81) comprising a resonant distributed mode acoustic radiator having a periphery, a transducer (9) mounted to the radiator to excite distributed mode resonance in the radiator, and a frame (1) supporting the radiator, the transducer being coupled between the radiator and the frame to vibrate the panel to cause it to resonate to produce an acoustic output, characterized in that frame supports the radiator round its periphery and by resilient suspension means coupled between the frame and the radiator periphery.

To overcome acoustic distortion caused by local resonance in panel core cells, a resonant multi-mode radiator element is provided for a panel form loudspeaker with a functional upper frequency limit .function..sub.max. The element has skins and a cellular based core, the skins have a thickness h, a Young's modulus .EPSILON. a Poisson's ratio of .nu. and a material density .rho. and the core has a cell size lcell characterized in that the cell size lcell is less than equation (2).