Glossary Of Audio Terms - MartinLogan Dynamo 500 User Manual

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LOSSARY OF
AC. Abbreviation for alternating current.
Active crossover.
and some form of power supply to operate.
Amplitude.
Arc. The visible sparks generated by an electrical discharge.
ATF. The abbreviation for advanced thin film.
Bass.
Bi-Amplification.
passive crossover, and separate power amplifiers for the
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 line source.
Crossover. An electrical circuit that divides a full bandwidth
components.
dB (decibel).
of a sound. The difference in decibels between two sounds is
ten times the Base 10 logarithm of the ratio of their power levels.
A T
UDIO 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.
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Diaphragm.
in response to electrical signals to produce sound waves.
Distortion.
monics of the drive signal present with the wanted signal.
Generally used to mean any unwanted change introduced
Driver. See transducer.
Dynamic Range.
Efficiency. The acoustic power delivered for a given elec-
ESL. The abbreviation for electrostatic loudspeaker.
Headroom. The difference, in decibels, between the peak
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).
cycles per second.
Imaging. To make a representation or imitation of the original
sonic event.
Impedance. The total opposition offered by an electric
circuit to the flow of an alternating current of a single fre-
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