B
Baffle: A panel used to attenuate or change sound direction.
Bandwidth: Describes a block of frequencies from low to high or vice versa.
Bass: Low frequency sound.
Binding post: A metal post used to connect electrical wiring.
Birch Plywood: Birch wood panels made from many layers glued together.
Bybee Technologies: Manufacturer of Bybee Quantum Purifiers.
C
Carbon fiber: High strength space age composite material made from carbon fibers.
Cardas: Manufacturer of very high end cables and electrical conditioning equipment.
Cd’s: Commonly used term for Compact Discs, used to store music files.
Classical: A type of music or description of a timely product or event.
Coherent: Analogues to a laser beam with all sound waves traveling in lock-step.
Collage: A technique in which pictorial images or patterns and pieces
of colored, textured material are superimposed onto each other.
Coherent Wave Transmission Line: A type of speaker driver.
Compression: A phenomenon that occurs causing electrical signals to get smaller.
Conrad Johnson: Manufacturer of some of the worlds finest tubed audio equipment.
Copper: Shiny orange highly conductive ductile naturally occurring metal.
Copper shorting ring: Used in speaker magnetic motors to prevent eddy current losses.
Copper wire: Electrical wire made from copper.
Crossover: An electrical dividing network used to send low, med and high freq. signals to bass, mid-range or tweeter speakers.
D
Damping: To attenuate or make less.
db: Symbol for decibel.
DDD: Dick’s Dipole Driver, manufactured by German Physiks.
Decibel: A measurement used to describe sound intensity level.
Dick’s Dipole Driver: As above…DDD.
Digital: Information stored as digital bits consisting of ones and zeros.
Distortion: Referring to an electrical signal that is not an exact copy of the first.
Dust cap: Cap (cover) used to cover voice coil and magnetic gap in a speaker.
Dynamic: Either very active or covering a large span from low to high.
E
Efficiency: The ratio of the effective or useful output to the total input in any system.
En ABL: Physical process having to do with sound boundary layers.
En ABL Process: Created by Bud Pervine of Onetics Corp..
Exotic: Unusual, beautiful, rare.
Exotic wood: Wood having character not found everyday or being rare.
F
Felted paper cone: Specially treated paper with very soft velvety touch.
Floor standing: Large upright standing speaker assemblies unlike bookshelf.
Flux: Used to describe the energy found in a speaker magnetic gap.
Former: The body of a voice coil assembly, can be made of many materials.
Frequency: Describes the sine wave value of signals in an electrical system.
Frequency response: The range of response for a given driver or speaker system.
H
Hand crafted: Made by hand with precision crafting of components.
Harmonic: signal with a freq. that is ½ or double the fundamental signal.
Helmholtz Resonator: A tuned port used in speaker cabinets discovered by Helmholtz.
Hi-Fi: A term used to describe High Fidelity, popular when stereo began.
High density foam: A type of open cell poly foam with high density per cubic inch.
High end loudspeaker: Used to describe very high quality, usually expensive loudspeaker.
Hurricane DT-200: High power tube mono block amplifiers made by Antique Sound Lab.
Hybrid: Consisting of multiple drivers of different types, i.e. pistonic, ribbon, etc.
L
Lambs wool: Used to stuff speaker cabinets to control sound resonance.
Landmark: An event that is of epic proportions.
Lamination: The process of building up thin layers of materials and
bonding them together as one product under heat and pressure with an adhesive
added.
Laser: Acronym of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Lincoln Walsh: Discoverer of the Walsh Driver principal.
Litz: Many wires that have been woven into a special pattern discovered by Litz.
Live music: Music performed live as opposed to recorded media.
Loiminchay: Chinese manufacturer.
Loud Speaker: Electrical device used to reproduce voice or sound signals.
M
Magico V3: Very High end Speaker made by Magico.
Magnetic motor: The part of a speaker responsible for turning electrical signals into sound.
Maple Shade Records: A high end music outlet and stereo equipment supplier.
Mass: What all things are made of. Consists of atoms of material.
Mass loading: Using various amounts of mass to act as a physical load on a driver.
MBL 101E: Very high end Omni directional speakers made by MBL.
MDF: referred to as Medium Density Fiberboard, used to make cabinets.
Metal foils: Metal sheets that have very low thickness is called foils.
Metal speaker cone: A speaker cone made largely of metal foils or stamped metals.
Mid-range: The middle of the acoustic range from 20Hz to 20Khz.
Moving mass: Any mass that is moving, having to do with physics.
Music: What we're all after.
P
Passive component: Any component that does not play an active role.
Passive radiator: Usually a cone shaped sound radiator that has no voice coil or magnet.
Pattern: A design having discernable repeating qualities.
Performance: How well a given set of equipment or parameters behaves in practice.
Piston driver: A speaker having a cone shaped paper diaphragm that tries to move air.
Pistonic: Referring to a forward and backward motion as in a piston driver.
Planar: A speaker driver using a very thin membrane panel to make sound.
Pop: A style of music.
Ported box: A speaker cabinet that is not sealed and allows the back wave to exit via port.
Power handling: Describes the amount of electrical power a speaker can safely handle.
Proprietary:Describes a process, usually secret, belonging wholly to one manufacture.
Purity: Having no other elements.
Putty: A soft material resembling modeling clay.
R
Radiation: Usually referred to as a non-ionizing radiation sound wave pattern.
Real time: An event that occurs in Real Time.
Recone: The process whereby a speaker driver is repaired to function as new.
Reconer: The person that recons speaker drivers.
Reconing: See recone, and reconer.
Recording: A duplicate of a live performance stored on CD, record, tape or hard drive.
Records: Vinyl disc having sound signals pressed into groves on the record surface.
Reflection: When sound hits an object it is reflected from the surface back into the room.
Refurbished: Making an old speaker or speaker system as new.
Repair: To fix something that is broken.
Reproduction: The act of playing music from any form of recording.
Resonance: Induced vibration of a material caused by the presence of external energy.
Ribbon speaker: Driver using an sound element made of a long thin metal ribbon.
Ribbon wire: Wire drawn in the shape of a ribbon.
Room acoustics: Every room has its own sound signature caused by reflection and absorption.
Room correction: Acoustically correcting any given room for unwanted sound reflections.
S
Sealed box: A cabinet possessing no air leaks whatsoever, providing support for
the speaker cone on a cushion of air.
Silver: A semi-precious shiny soft and ductile metal. Very good electrical conductor.
Sine wave: a signal having a sinusoidal shape.
Single driver: Consisting of one speaker driver unit.
Sonic: Refers to sound propagation or movement.
Sonic balance: balance of sound.
Sound: 1.Vibration of air molecules upon the eardrum. 2.Vibration of air molecules caused by some motional disturbance.
Sound pattern: A discernable pattern in the sound.
Sound pressure level: Apparent loudness of any given sound within an acoustic space.
Sound velocity: The speed at which a sound wave travels in a given medium.
Sound wave: Ripples of sound processing through the air.
Speaker: Element or elements made to reproduce sound as in a speaker system.
Speaker magnet: Magnetic element used to create the magnetic flux energy in a Speaker motor.
Specifications: A list of all pertinent data regarding the speaker system performance.
Speed of sound: Generally accepted as a sound wave propagation of 1128 ft/sec in air.
Spider: A corrugated support used to center and stabilize the speaker voice coil.
SPL: Stands for Sound Pressure Level.
Square wave: The shape of an electrical signal used for testing audio equipment.
Standing wave: The presence of certain frequencies.
State of the art: Absolute top of the line current technology.
Stereo: Short for stereo system or stereo reproduction, also meaning two.
Stradivarius: A very famous very rare hand made violin, made by Antonio Stradivari or a member of his family.
Sub Woofer: A speaker unit responsible for producing the low register only.
Surround: An annular ring located at the edge of the speaker cone used to center the cone and absorb unwanted sound waves.
Surround sound: Sound that is perceived to come from all directions.
Sweet spot: Generally the listening spot that produces the most life like sound.
T
Technology: Relates to the development of science and engineering.
Time and phase distortion: Distortions relating to time and or phase of the original signal.
Time domain: An event that occurs during a specific time interval.
Tip toes: Metal cone shaped points mounted on the base of a speaker cabinet.
Titanium: An extremely strong, high temperature, dense and yet light metal.
Transient response: A driver’s ability to produce lightening fast response to an input signal.
Transmission line: Refers to an electrical or mechanical device that transmits signals.
Transparent: Crystal clear or sound having little or no distortion.
Treble: Another name for high frequencies.
True fidelity: Relates to the quality of true sound or an actual event.
Tweeter: The name given to a driver whose purpose is to produce high frequencies.
V
Vacuum tube: An electronic device used to regulate the flow of electrons in a circuit.
Velocity: The speed at which something is moving.
Veneer: A thin layer of real wood applied to a cabinet’s outer surface.
Vinyl: A plastic material that most records are made from.
Voice: The act of speaking or of causing a driver to make sound.
Voice coil: The part of a drivers magnetic motor that is responsible for transmitting the electrical energy of a music signal to the driver.
W
Walsh speaker: The Walsh speaker driver.
Wall Fabric: A durable surface on a backing used to cover walls.
Walsh TLS-1: A true 12’ Walsh speaker now produced by HHR Exotics.
Walsh TLS-2: A true 18” Walsh speaker now produced by HHR Exotics.
Walsh transducer: Another name for the Walsh speaker driver.
Watts: The amount of power either delivered or expended by a process.
Wave: Description of sound or sounds as they travel through air.
Wave front: The oncoming or leading edge of a sound wave.
Wavelength: A measurement relating to the frequency of a sound wave.
Woofer: A driver usually used to produce the lowest registers.
World Class: Describing the ranking of similar items throughout the world.
