pondering

[saltynay]

ok well in my case I have a sound level indicator and I just can't get it to work which is just ****ing me off and I was wondering whether was a constant current "background noise" as you called it or whether there was nothing going down the wire at all when no music was playing

 

[Vormund]

I'll try my best, but eric will have to fill in the details.

Wasn't trying to "sound sophisticated"... I just can't explain it very well.

You tried / did, and said more then I could, so it's new to me...thanks. (And I didn't have to use Google once, so hah!)

A/C voltage. alternating current. that's the simple explanation

Could you give the complex explanation? It's always fun to learn from someone that knows.

 

[EricB]

You tried / did, and said more then I could, so it's new to me...thanks. (And I didn't have to use Google once, so hah!)

Could you give the complex explanation? It's always fun to learn from someone that knows.

it's a complex long explanation. crysalis touched of some of the basics. I'm a horrible typer and I hate typing long.

 

[Crysalis]

it's a complex long explanation. crysalis touched of some of the basics. I'm a horrible typer and I hate typing long.

Looks like someone did it for you...

Audio: Audio Signals


In simple terms:

A microphone and a speaker are both transducers.

A dynamic microphone:

A Condenser Microphone:

There are other types of microphones, both those are the most common.



Speaker:

So you've got sound waves. They bounce all around. When the microphone element is shaken by the waves, the element translates that into AC current (a VERY small amount). If it is a condensor microphone, it will be two tiny metal plates vibrating, sending the signal to a battery (if not powered by phantom power of +48v), and then down to the cable. This is still a tiny amount of electricity.

A speaker needs a lot more AC to move. Howstuffworks "How Speakers Work" A speaker is the opposite of a microphone (you can use a speaker as microphone, though it sounds terrible). It will take that AC current and translate it back into those vibrations. Then, the speaker cone actually vibrates and pushes molecules to recreate those original sound waves captured by the microphone. The lower the frequency, the more the movement (thus those crazy subs that move like crazy - they are pushing a soundwave thats over an actual 60 feet long). Since a speaker needs power to move, and the microphone only sends out a TINY bit of it, what is needed?

AN AMPLIFIER!!! AMAZING! Since its been done for me, I wont bother explaining amplfiers.

Howstuffworks "How Amplifiers Work"


I have to go right now, but I may post more later.