Where does sound eminate from on a driver?

[topspeed]

I've always wondered this and with the influx of more and more coax designs hitting the market (i.e. TAD Model 1) my curiousity is getting the best of me. When a driver moves, is the majority of the sound coming from the center, the edge, or the whole surface of the cone? For example, my B&W woofers have an enormous dust cover (for lack of a better term) thereby leaving very little of the driver cone exposed yet the mid's are your typical driver design.

I've also seen lots of soft dome tweeters that actually have a protective cap over the center of the dome thereby only exposing the outer edges of the dome. I'd always thought that would in some way muffle the sound but obviously I'm wrong. Fostex full range drivers have a bizarre wave guide(?) attached to the dust cover so what does that do? Questions, Questons, Questions!

Chances are I'm overanalyzing this. Just curious I suppose.

Any takers?