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g
lossary of
AC . Abbreviation for alternating current .
Active .crossover . Uses active devices (transistors, ICs, tubes)
and some form of power supply to operate .
Amplitude . The extreme range of a signal . Usually mea-
sured from the average to the extreme .
Arc . The visible sparks generated by an electrical discharge .
ATF . The abbreviation for advanced thin film .
Bass . The lowest frequencies of sound .
Bi-Amplification . Uses an electronic crossover, or line-level
passive crossover, and separate power amplifiers for the
high and low frequency loudspeaker drivers .
Capacitance . That property of a capacitor which deter-
mines how much charge can be stored in it for a given
potential difference between its terminals, measured in
farads, by the ratio of the charge stored to the potential
difference .
Capacitor . A device consisting of two or more conducting
plates separated from one another by an insulating material
and used for storing an electrical charge . Sometimes called
a condenser .
Clipping . Distortion of a signal by its being chopped off . An
overload problem caused by pushing an amplifier beyond
its capabilities . The flat-topped signal has high levels of
harmonic distortion which creates heat in a loudspeaker
and is the major cause of loudspeaker component failure .
CLS . The abbreviation for curvilinear linesource .
Crossover . An electrical circuit that divides a full bandwidth
signal into the desired frequency bands for the loudspeaker
components .
dB .(decibel) . A numerical expression of the relative loudness
of a sound . The difference in decibels between two sounds is
ten times the Base 10 logarithm of the ratio of their power levels .
0
Glossary of Audio Terms
a
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erms
DC . Abbreviation for direct current .
Diffraction . The breaking up of a sound wave caused by
some type of mechanical interference such as a cabinet edge,
grill frame or other similar object .
Diaphragm . A thin flexible membrane or cone that vibrates
in response to electrical signals to produce sound waves .
Distortion . Usually referred to in terms of total harmonic
distortion (THD) which is the percentage of unwanted har-
monics of the drive signal present with the wanted signal .
Generally used to mean any unwanted change introduced
by the device under question .
Driver . See transducer .
Dynamic .Range . The range between the quietest and the
loudest sounds a device can handle (often quoted in dB) .
Efficiency . The acoustic power delivered for a given electrical
input . Often expressed as decibels/watt/meter (dB/w/m) .
ESL . The abbreviation for electrostatic loudspeaker .
Headroom . The difference, in decibels, between the peak
and RMS levels in program material .
Hybrid . A product created by the marriage of two different
technologies . Meant here as the combination of a dynam-
ic woofer with an electrostatic or ATF transducer .
Hz .(Hertz) . Unit of frequency equivalent to the number of
cycles per second .
Imaging . To make a representation or imitation of the origi-
nal sonic event .
Impedance . The total opposition offered by an electric
circuit to the flow of an alternating current of a single fre-
quency . It is a combination of resistance and reactance and
is measured in ohms . Remember that a speaker's imped-
ance changes with frequency, it is not a constant value .
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