Wireless Speakers and Headphones Glossary

A glossary for wireless speakers and headphones terms that are used in this tutorial.

Wireless Speakers and Headphones Glossary

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AC (Alternating Current): An electrical current that periodically changes in magnitude and direction.
Acoustic Suspension Enclosure: Or "sealed enclosure". A type of speaker that has no port where the air can escape through, and the back-wave travels only inside the box.
Active Crossover: A crossover that is driven by an external power source.
Active Speaker: A speaker using drivers that are powered by a built-in amplifier.
Amplifier: A component or device capable of detecting a signal and enhancing that signal.
Analog Signal: The continuous waveform signal created by the infinite number of varying frequencies.
Audiophile: A person that is particularly sensitive to high quality audio sound.
Audio Speakers: A complex of devices that can turn electric signals into the correspondent audio signals.
Bandwidth: The frequency range that an audio system can reproduce, from high to low.
Basket: A component of the speaker that holds all the other parts together.
Bass: The name for low frequency sounds, usually below 200 Hz.
Bass Reflex Enclosure: An enclosure type that features a vent or a port, which serves to redirect the backward wave outward and this way, its pressure is used to supplement the power of the front wave.
Bipolar Speaker: A type of speaker that has drivers on both sides, which operate in phase (they push out and pull inn at the same time).
Bluetooth: A new protocol developed by industry leaders (like Microsoft, Plantronics, Nokia, Ericsson, IBM, 3Com and Motorola). Bluetooth is still in its infancy, but the design allows for seamless, wireless, automatic connectivity between a large number of devices. Bluetooth headsets are among the first Bluetooth devices available.
Bookshelf Speaker: A small-size speaker that is fit to sit on a shelf, table or other objects.
By-amplify: An audio system where the low frequency drivers and high frequency drivers are powered by separate amplifiers.
Capacitor: A device used to store charge. In audio systems, a capacitor stores energy during intervals that require less energy supply and release it when demands are higher than what is available from the power supply.
Center Channel: The front channel found in surround sound audio systems, that reproduces voices and dialogues.
Circumaural Headphones: A headphone type where the pads surround the ear.
Closed-back Headphones: A type of circumaural headphones where the pads enclose the ear perfectly, and sound waves cannot travel in and out.
Cone: A type of speaker that is shaped like a cone in order to enhance the amplitude of the sound waves (for louder sound). Used as "diaphragm" - the part that vibrates when the voice coil moves and produces the sound waves.
Cordless: A term that was traditionally used for wireless headphones that functioned on infrared technology. Now, there are RF based headphones that are called "cordless" by their manufacturers.
Crossover: A device that splits up the frequency spectrum into categories (midrange frequencies, bass and treble) and then hands them to the driver that can reproduce them best (mid-range, woofer, tweeter respectively).
Diaphragm: Cone. The part that vibrates when the voice coil moves and produces the sound waves.
Digital: A method of encoding the analog audio signals into digital bits of information. The advantage versus analog recording is that you can edit and play-back the digital media with little distortion and quality loss.
Dynamic Speaker: The most common type of speaker. It transforms electrical signals into sound waves by moving a voice coil which moves a diaphragm that vibrates.
Decibel: The standard unit to measure amplitude. With sound waves, decibels measure loudness.
Dipole: Dipole speaker enclosures have the active driver facing one way and the passive driver facing the opposite way, and the sound is diffused in both directions, "out of phase". This design is sometimes used for rear channels in a home theater system.
Direct Sound: The sound that you hear directly from the source.
Dome Tweeter: A drive that features a dome-shaped diaphragm for reproducing the high frequencies.
Driver: A loudspeaker unit, usually consisting of a magnet and voice coil that move in an electromagnetic field and connect to a diaphragm.
Dust Cap: A cover glued to the cone (diaphragm).
Electrostatic Speakers: A type of speakers that use positive and negative electric charges over two thin panels, one stationary and one movable, to generate sound.
Efficiency (Sensitivity): An indicator that tells how well the audio system transforms electrical signals of a given power into sounds.
Enclosure: A box (also called cabinet) that holds all the drivers of a loudspeaker together, in an arrangement that can provide the best sound quality.
Flat Response: Is the capacity of a speaker to reproduce sound without adding any artifacts or distortions to it. Flat response speakers are close to the ideal speakers.
Floorstanding Speaker: A speaker of bigger dimensions (usually enclosing large diameter drivers).
Frequency: Indicates how often an event occurs. In audio, frequency expresses how many sound-waves arrive at a passing point in one second.
Frequency Response: The range within a driver can clearly reproduce undistorted sound waves.
Full Range: The entire spectrum of audio waves.
Headset: Set of headphones/earphones and microphone, to enable 2-way communication.
Hertz (Hz): The unit of sound frequency. 1 Hz is equal to one cycle per second. The human ear can hear 20 Hz to 20 MHz frequencies.
Hiss: A noise that sounds similar to that of a goose when irritated.
Home Theater System: A complete audio system that is made of a video display, one video source (or more), and surround sound (left, right and middle front speakers, left and right rear speakers).
Horn Speakers: A speaker enclosure that places the driver at the small end of a megaphone-like piece, to enhance the sound efficiency.
Intra-aural: A type of earphone that sits gently in the ear canal.
Imaging: The ability of a speaker to reproduce spatial information in a recording so that you can visualize the relative positioning of interprets and instruments as you're listening.
Impedance: The resistance to the flow of an electrical charge in a circuit, measured in ohms.
Inductor: An electronic device that resists changes in current due to the production of a magnetic field around itself. Inductors are usually used in an audio system as low-pass crossovers.
Kilohertz (KHz): One thousand hertz.
Low-Pass Filter: An electric circuit designed to pass only low frequencies.
Midrange: The middle band of the audio frequency spectrum.
Mono: Monophonic sound. A technique of blending the sounds coming from different directions and reproducing them into a single channel sound.
Noise-cancelling Headphones: Headphones that isolate the ear, through a system that reflects back the background noise.

Wireless Speakers and Headphones Glossary

Wireless Speakers and Headphones Glossary

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