The suspension system keeps the coil centered in the gap and provides a restoring force to make the speaker cone return to a neutral position after moving. A typical suspension system consists of two parts: the "spider", which connects the diaphragm or voice coil to the frame and provides the majority of the restoring force; and the "surround", which helps center the coil/cone assembly and allows free pistonic motion aligned with the magnetic gap.

Modern driver magnets are almost always permanent and made of ceramic, ferrite, Alnico, or, more recently, neodymium magnet. A current trend in design, due to increases in transportation costs and a desire for smaller, lighter devices (as in many home theater multi-speaker installations), is the use of neodymium magnet instead of ferrite types.