Lexikon Pegel specifications

Category : Lexicon

In sound engineering or electroacoustics, the term level refers to the strength of a signal. A higher level corresponds to a stronger signal. It depends on the type of signal, how the level is measured and in what unit it is expressed.

Examples:

When a signal is converted from one representation to another, it is specified which level of one representation corresponds to which level of the other representation. This happens, for example, with a loudspeaker that converts an electrical signal into an acoustic signal. Here, the efficiency indicates which sound level is caused by which electrical signal level (e.g. 1W == 92dB (SPL ) at a distance of 1m in the free field). There is a similar problem with a D / A converter: it specifies which level of the digital signal corresponds to which level of the generated analog signal (e.g. 0dBFS = 18dBu).

When leveling, a sound system is adjusted in such a way that a fed-in test signal with a known strength through the system causes a desired (sometimes specified by standards) reference level at each point. As a result, a high quality of the sound signal in the system is achieved by making the most of the characteristics of the devices. It is necessary to make a compromise between the external voltage gap and the control reserve.

See also the Wikipedia articles: Level (physics), sound level, reference level

The sound level is the strength of an acoustic signal, and is therefore related to the sound pressure, a mechanical quantity
The signal level is usually the level of an electrical signal in a device, and in most cases a voltage signal. An audible tone is electrically represented by this voltage signal. The signal level is usually expressed as a dB value or as an RMS voltage (in volts), sometimes also as a power (in watts).
The digital level is the level of a digitally represented sound signal. It is usually specified as dBFS.