| Amplifier |
| an electrical circuit designed to increase the current or voltage of a signal. |
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| Audio Patch |
| connecting an audio source; computer, mic, VCR, etc. to a different room via cable or mixer. |
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| Crossover Network (Filter) |
| an electric circuit or network that splits the audio frequencies into different bands for application to individual speakers. |
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| DAC |
| digital-to-analogue converter, turning on/off pulses into analogue sound. CD players have DACs built in. Separate DACs can upgrade a CD player or other digital player/ recorder, or can be used with dedicated CD transports. |
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| Equalizer |
| electronic device that acts as active filters used to boost or attenuate certain frequencies. |
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| Ground |
| refers to a point of zero voltage or potential. |
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| House Sound |
| built in sound system of hotel or room that has XLR inputs. |
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| Input |
| connection from signal source. |
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| Keystoning |
| the process by which a projector optically or digitally racks an image onto the screen in order to compensate for sub-optimal placement with relation to the projection screen. Vertical keystoning is often necessary and recommended for business projectors which are table-mounted, but is always avoided in home theater use due to the fact that even a minimum amount causes pixel blurring and loss of detail. |
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| Lumen |
| the measure of light output from an LCD projector. The higher the number, the brighter the light output of the projector. |
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| Mac Adaptor |
| most MAC computers need an adaptor (MAC to 15 pin VGA) to connect to an LCD projector. |
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| Mono |
| monophonic sound. A method for reproducing sound where the signals from all directions or sources are blended into a single channel. |
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| Out of Phase |
| when your speakers are mounted in reverse polarity, i.e., one speaker is wired +/+ and -/- from the amp and the other is wired +/- and -/+. Bass response will be very thin due to cancellation. |
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| Output |
| the sound level produced by a loudspeaker. |
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| Peak |
| the maximum amplitude of a voltage or current. |
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| Resonance |
| the tendency of an object to vibrate most at a particular frequency. |
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| Satellite speaker |
| a small speaker with limited bass response, often designed to be used with a matching subwoofer. |
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| Scaling |
| all displays have a native resolution. Scaling is one of two things: a display's act of bringing the input signal up to its native (proper) resolution, or a source component's act of taking the source resolution and increasing the output pixels to something greater than the original. |
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| Screen Size |
| refers to the width and height of a screen. This is diagonal for computer screens and left to right for projection screens. |
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| Soundstage |
| the sound systems ability to recreate an imaginary stage. A good speaker will faithfully make the stage seem close to the actual height, width and depth of the actual performance stage where recorded. The reproduction of the way the music would sound if you were actually watching the musicians play in front of you. The stage should always appear to be in front of you, with a proper "image" of where each musician is playing on the imaginary soundstage. |
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| Subwoofer |
| a loudspeaker designed to reproduce bass frequencies |
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| Three-Way |
| a type of speaker system composed of three ranges of speakers, specifically a woofer, midrange, and tweeter. |
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| Tweeter |
| a speaker designed to reproduce the high or treble range of the sound spectrum.. |
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| Two-Way |
| a type of speaker system composed of two ranges of speakers, usually a woofer and tweeter. |
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| Widescreen |
| commonly confused with letterbox, this typically indicates a 16:9 or greater aspect ratio in anamorphic format on a DVD or HD DVD media disc. It is also used to describe the 16:9 aspect ratio of most HDTVs. |
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| Woofer |
| a loudspeaker transducer designed to reproduce low-frequency sounds. |
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