Woofers:
A Mammoth Description
Speakers: Had enough of those teeny-weeny earphones? If you wish to grace your PC with a new set of speakers, but are not aware of the basic resonance, check out our FAQs on speakers this month and make sense of your vendor's pitch.
1) What are the different speakers in a multi-part speaker system known as?
Front Speakers: The front speakers are the most basic components of your sound system. They are responsible for a major portion of the sound-highs, mids and lows.
Centre Channel: One of the important speakers in your system, it's responsible for voices and sound effects. Opt for a one that's magnetically shielded.
Surround/Rear Speakers: The surround speakers are responsible for the ambience that's so important for a movie, game or your kind of music. Hence, these should be matched to the front speakers so that they do not reduce the overall sound effect.
Sub-Woofer/Woofer: This is the most important amplifier. Games, movies and some music DVDs designate a whole channel to produce low sound frequencies. This lightens the load on the other speakers resulting in a much better overall experience.
2) What does PMPO mean?
Peak Music Power Output (PMPO) is the combined power output of all the channels of an amplifier. It's the total music power output an amplifier is rated to produce.
3) What's RMS?
Root Mean Square (RMS) is the rated output per channel that an amplifier is designed to produce. It's approximately one-tenth of the PMPO but has no direct co-relation with it. An RMS rating is always preferred over a PMPO rating as it gives the exact power a speaker system can produce, unlike PMPO that rates the power produced at maximum levels.
4) What do 2.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1 and 6.1 in a speaker system refer to?
These signify the number of discrete audio channels that you can use. For example, '2.0' is basic stereo, '5.0' would be Dolby Digital and the '.1' adds the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel-the woofers or sub-woofers that produce lower frequency sounds to give that extra punch to your sound.
Generally, the first number indicates the number of satellites-the small speakers that you place around your room-and the second indicates whether an LFE speaker is included.
5) What do channels mean?
To understand this, let's use the example of streams or channels flowing into a river. Say, for the sake of this article, that there are six channels (as in a 5.1 speaker system). Each channel of water carries a particular 'piece' of water. These individual (or discrete) channels then flow into the one river to produce the whole effect. Now, relate this to speakers. In the case of a 5.1 speaker system, you have 6 individual channels-one for each satellite speaker, and one for the sub-woofer. We have distinct channels so that one speaker can be sent one section of the sound. Hence, it appears as if the noise is coming from a particular place. So, when a missile flies overheard from behind the camera, you would have the sound sent to the rear speakers and then fade to the front as the missile travels across the screen. With 4.1 and 5.1 speaker systems, you can experience this cinematic sound at home to a much better effect than with standard 2.0 (stereo) or 2.1 speaker sets.
6) What is a sub-woofer?
A sub-woofer comprises a driver-the cone that moves backwards and forward to produce the sound-that's much larger than the one used in the satellite speakers. The sub-woofer, because of its larger driver, is assigned the task of producing the bass notes as the smaller drivers in satellites cannot normally produce the really low notes. A proper expensive high-end sub-woofer should not produce a sound above 80-90 Hz but limit itself to frequencies lesser than 30 Hz. In this case, you will easily end up paying more than £1000 (approx. Rs 75,200) for the sub-woofer alone.
A big feature of a sub-woofer is its bass port. A bass port is basically a hole, or rather a tube that leads into the case of the sub-woofer. Its task is to allow air to move in and out of the case. This, in turn, allows the driver to move further producing a richer, booming sound.
7) Is a sub-woofer all that important?
Most Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks have a .1 LFE track especially for the sub-woofer. The quality of sound improves considerably with a sub-woofer. Explosions make themselves heard and bass tracks seem deeper. You might have huge woofers within your speakers, but chances are that they won't be able to produce low frequency sound with the same intensity and richness as a powered sub-woofer.
8) What is surround sound?
The concept of surround sound appeared in the 1960s, the decade that saw the introduction of quadraphonic sound. It was a system of encoding four channels of information within a two-channel recording. The result was that ambient sounds could be embedded in a two-channel recording that a normal record player could decode and play using a quadraphonic receiver or amplifier. This decoder would then pass the signals to four separate speakers. Surround sound is more or less similar. In its basic Dolby Surround form, four sound channels-right, left, centre and rear-are encoded into a two-channel audio track and played back with a surround decoder. This decoder relays these sounds to their respective amplifiers. The rear channel relays sound from behind the listening position and brings about the surround effect.
9) What is virtual surround or spatialized surround?
Virtual surround attempts to play back the surround effects of a multi-track recording with only two speakers. The televisions of today have this as a standard feature. Though virtual surround works quite well in some instances, in no way does it compare in quality to true surround sound.
10) How do the position of speakers and their surrounding areas contribute to sound quality?
Placing the most expensive and high-end of systems anywhere at random will not deliver as good a sound ambience as that produced by an excellent layout of mid-range speaker systems.
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