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A control found on receivers, and some mixers
or signal processing units that silences (mutes) a
signal path, or output.
O
Ohm
Measure of resistance to current (impedance).
The lower the impedance of a speaker, the
harder it is to drive.
P
PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)
Pioneering form of digital recording.
R
RF (radio frequency)
An alternating current or voltage with a
frequency (or carrier wave) above about
100kHz. It is called radio frequency because
these frequencies have a capacity to be radiated
as electromagnetic waves by radio (and
television) stations.
Rhapsody
®
Rhapsody
is a membership-based digital music
®
service that allows listeners to subscribe to
music through the Internet at a monthly rate,
rather than to purchase the music.
S
S/PDIF (SPDIF) (Sony/Philips Digital Interface)
A standard audio-file transfer-format that was
developed jointly by Sony and Philips. S/PDIF
allows the transfer of digital audio signals from
one device to another, without the need to
convert first to analog. This prevents the quality
of the digital signal degrading during transfer to
analog.
Sensitivity
Volume that a speaker offers for a specific
voltage input, expressed in decibels per watt
(dB/W).
Shuffle
A feature that plays audio files (tracks) in
random order.
Signal to noise ratio
Represents the difference between the level of
the audio signal, and any interference. The larger
the figure, the purer the sound.
SPL (sound pressure level)
An acoustic measurement of sound energy.
1 dB SPL is the smallest increment in sound
level to which the average human is sensitive.
Theoretically, 0 dB SPL is the threshold of
human hearing while approximately 120 dB is
the threshold of pain.
Stereo
Literally means solid. Usually taken to refer to
two channel stereo, though developments in
digital audio facilitate multichannel stereo.
Streaming
A technique for transferring data such that it
can be processed as a steady and continuous
stream. Streaming technologies are often used
on the Internet because many users do not
have fast enough access to download large
multimedia files quickly, so the client browser or
plug-in can start displaying the data before the
entire file has been transmitted.
U
UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
Universal Plug and Play is a networking
architecture developed by a consortium of
companies to ensure easy connectivity between
products from different vendors. UPnP devices
should be able to connect to a network
automatically, handling identification and other
processes on the fly. The standards developed
by the UPnP Forum are media-, platform-, and
device-independent.
V
VBR (variable bit rate)
EN
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