One of the most difficult-to-understand terms for newcomers (and even experienced enthusiasts) in audio and sound reproduction is the decibel, partly because it’s a measure of relative intensity or ...

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Engineers and technicians who work with oscilloscopes are used to seeing waveforms that plot a voltage versus time. Almost all oscilloscopes these days include the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to view ...

In Decibels: Use with caution, I reviewed the concept of decibels as a ratio of two powers (and sometimes voltages). Decibels are also used to indicate absolute power and voltage levels by specifying ...

From the Richter scale to sound pressure, many modern units utilize the logarithmic “base 10” system. But to many engineers, the decibel (dB) remains one of the trickiest concepts of test and ...

A decibel (dB) is a unit used to measure how loud a sound is. The louder the sound, the higher the decibel number. Sounds are made when something vibrates, creating sound waves that travel through the ...