Re: Signal to noise ratio?
Originally Posted by
sayitnelly
Guys I'm trying to get some good speakers but I keep running into something known as signal to noise ratio? What exactly does that mean?
Signal to noise ratio is simply a measure of the relationship between the signal (be that music, voice, whatever you're interested in) and the noise (be that the rumble of a passing truck, the hiss that an amplifier makes when the gain is really cranked up, or anything that you are *not* interested in).
Consider the case of a singer at an outdoor cafe. When you are a long way away, you can see the cafe and the singer, but the noise of the traffic around you prevents you from hearing much of the song, and you can't interpret the words. The loudness level of the traffic noise might be higher than the loudness level of the singer; the singer is lost in the noise.
As you walk closer to the cafe, the sound of the singer's voice gets louder while the traffic noise stays the same (same traffic on the same street). This makes it easier to hear the singer and at some point you'll be close enough to understand the words to the song. This happens when the loudness level of the singer is sufficiently higher than the loudness level of the traffic noise. Once you reach the cafe and take a seat the singer is sufficiently louder than the noise that you have little trouble hearing the singer. This is a higher signal to noise ratio.
Really, that's mostly what signal to noise ratio is about -- how easy is it for you to hear the singer?
"If it sounds good, it is good." -- Duke Ellington