How does a loudspeaker cone generate acoustical pressure?

[Tim Link]

The final question: given the above, how on earth can a speaker replicate the audio signal?
The outcome of this is that the cone acceleration needs to replicate the recorded audio signal. This is where things get very fortunate because, provided the cone mass dominates the mechanical behaviour (as opposed to the stiffness or damping of the surround/suspension) and the driver motor converts the audio signal directly to a force signal, this will naturally result in cone acceleration that matches the audio signal.**

Ah, so this means that the driver's displacement does NOT match the recorded signal when mass dominates the mechanical behavior! The driver's motion is actually reversed, but the resulting sound is correct because the cone's acceleration does match the electrical signal, so long as we are playing into free space? I think this is the critcal piece I was missing. Approaching and going below resonance, then the stiffness or damping becomes an important factor and the relationships change. So this really is quite a fortunate series of relationships. With horns and compression drivers we want the air stiffness and maybe suspension stiffness to dominate the motion, and that should bring things back into alignment again?