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10 Things
10 Things About Sound That You Were Afraid to Ask
Frequency, Dispersion, Woofers... don't let these words scare you - they all sound great.
Top 10 Things About Sound
Also Filed in 10 Things

May 01, 2006 | by EH Staff

1. Tweeters are the smallest speaker drivers, providing high sounds. They are often 1 inch or so in diameter and shaped like domes.

2. Woofers are the big drivers in a speaker that provide the low bass sounds. They are often 8 or 10 inches or more in diameter.

3. Midrange drivers provide the sounds in the middle of the audio spectrum. Having midrange sounds is important, because most people are more sensitive to sounds in this range than they are to highs and lows.

4. Subwoofers provide low sounds for movie effects like explosions and for music with deep bass. They usually consist of one of more large woofers. An active subwoofer contains its own amplifier, while a passive subwoofer does not.

5. Powered speakers are active speakers, meaning they have built-in amplifiers.

6. Ohms are units of electrical resistance, or impedance, but all you need to know is that you should match the resistance of your speakers to that of your receiver or amplifier (whichever connects to your speakers). Typical impedances are 4, 6 and 8 ohms.

7. Frequency range refers to the audio frequencies, or sounds, a speaker will play, anywhere from about 20 Hertz (low bass sounds) to 20 kilohertz (high sounds).

8. Decibels (dB), is a measurement of the intensity of sound, not necessarily its loudness. A typical movie’s dialogue is at about 85 dB, and its loud action scenes are at about 105 dB.

9. Sensitivity rates a loudspeaker’s responsiveness. It is measured in decibels, usually from about 86 to 93 dB—the higher, the better.

10. Dispersion refers to how sound spreads out, typically from a loudspeaker. In a home theater, the surround speakers on the sides or in the back of a room should be very dispersive, spreading ambient sounds, like crickets in the night, throughout the room.


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Comments (3) Most recent displayed first.
Posted by ehgreen  on  06/20/07  at  01:27 PM

Sorry, But I’d like to know more than simple basics, please

Posted by todd  on  05/08/07  at  09:51 AM

Let’s go back to basics again.....  S T E R E O.

Posted by ehgreen  on  01/01/07  at  12:33 AM

Article had pretty basic & ho-hum stuff. 

Lets get more complicated!
I’d like to have these answered:

Speakers each normally have two terminals, I’ll designate them as Black and Yellow, and the black has a + sign and the yellow a - sign.
An Amp has 7 pair of terminals, each pair being one Black and one Yellow, labeled
Front Left-White / Center / Right-Red ,
Rear Left / Center / Right , Woofer.

1) If I wire some Amp-Blacks to Speaker-Yellows and some Amp-Blacks to Speaker-Blacks, the sound will be “out of phase”, according to Textbooks.  How noticable will this be?

2) If the terminals are NOT well marked, how does one prevent this condition using TEST equipment?

3) If the speakers are mis positioned, either left / right, or front / back, it can be noticable.  How does one use TEST equipment to prevent this condition?

4) If the Audio source does not have “more than sterio”, can circuitry compensate with some standardized settings, and what might those be?
Are boards available to go from 2 ==> 6?  What are they, and how are they used, especially if the source contains a mix of old 2 channel and som newer 5.1 DD or better?

5) Is “Sterio” 2 separate Left and Right channels? What then is it when the Left channel has a L+R signal, and L-R on the Right?



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