Audio Terminology And Definitions Dictionary

 

Near Field  The region within approximately two meters of the loudspeakers. Listening tests conducted in the near field reveal different aspects of a loudspeaker's performance compared with listening in the far field.

 

Negative Feedback  An amplifier circuit configured so that the output signal is fed back to be compared with the input signal and any error signals cancelled. Easier to imagine than to achieve the desired results without unwanted side effects. 

 

Noise  Random, unwanted signals that are largely unrelated to the original signal. Typical examples in audio include hiss and static. Examples on the video side may include "snow" on an analog television screen or "mosquito noise" in a digital display.

 

Noise Reduction     Any technology designed to reduce steady-state noise (usually analog tape hiss) in the audio reproduction chain. Dolby Laboratories developed the first commercially successful professional noise reduction system, Dolby A, in the mid1960s.

 

NTSC  National Television Systems Committee. The body that establishes standards for television broadcast and reception in America and Japan (as well as a few other places). NTSC is also used to describe any hardware or software that conforms to NTSC standards. Sometimes jokingly called "Never the Same Color" due to technical difficulties occasionally encountered in accurately broadcasting or receiving NTSC signals.

 

Null  May have several meanings. In the acoustic world, a null is the absence of sound caused by out-of-phase wavefronts that cancel each other.