# Understanding Electronics



## ALPHUX (Nov 28, 2007)

OK so you want a post eh. I will speak my mind.:bigsmile:
Not having a grounding in Electronics or related fields (I majored in Botany!) some of the ideas and documentations expounded on HTS must necessarily be quite intimidating for some (and certainly for me!).
Have you guys ever tried to cater to the uninformed with a specially tailored online course (or something similar) which would go over everything represented on your site at your discretion.
Just throwing this out there to see if there might be a need for something like this.
Thanks:huh:


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## JimP (May 18, 2006)

*Re: A post!*



ALPHUX said:


> ....snip....
> 
> Have you guys ever tried to cater to the uninformed with a specially tailored online course (or something similar) which would go over everything represented on your site at your discretion.
> Just throwing this out there to see if there might be a need for something like this.
> Thanks:huh:


I would agree that there is a need for online courses covering the basics but that's not the scope of most online enthusiast forums.

Which area are you specifically interested in?


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

*Re: A post!*



ALPHUX said:


> OK so you want a post eh. I will speak my mind.:bigsmile:
> Not having a grounding in Electronics or related fields (I majored in Botany!) some of the ideas and documentations expounded on HTS must necessarily be quite intimidating for some (and certainly for me!).
> Have you guys ever tried to cater to the uninformed with a specially tailored online course (or something similar) which would go over everything represented on your site at your discretion.
> Just throwing this out there to see if there might be a need for something like this.
> Thanks:huh:


As with most anything, it takes time to really get a handle on understanding the intricacies. When I started my project 3 years ago, I knew pretty much nothing. I worked on my room until my wife told me I couldn't hammer downstairs as the kids were in bed, and then I spent the next 3 hours each night reading everything I could find. I am still by no means an expert, but I do not feel completely lost in most discussion anymore...


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## Tweaked05 (Sep 19, 2012)

*Re: A post!*

There is another forum out there that has the type of information you are looking for. I don't think it would be appropriate to promote another forum here, but if you are interested, you can PM me.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

*Re: A post!*

The best way to learn is to ask questions, the only dumb question is a question not asked.
You want to be careful where you go for "on line courses" as there is plenty of misinformation out there and alot of people looking to take your money.
At the HTS the information is free so don't be shy you won't find a better bunch of people then here.


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

*Re: A post!*

I don't want to push you away from this forum either, but in the interest of helping you, plug this into Google and the first hit should get you started .... avr faq michaeljhuman 
There is a lot of very good information there.

There is a lot of good information here too, and this is a moderated forum which I have really grown to appreciate as it keeps threads on topic and flames are extinguished immediately.

If you ask a question about almost anything, there are folk here that can help or will find out and report back to you.

There are many tools online that take care of needing the math background http://www.csgnetwork.com/ohmslaw2.html I refer people to this one all the time.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

The problem with a LOT of "other" forums is you may have to go through a TON of nonsense to find the good information. This goes for all types of forums, not just audio/video type forums. It is the nature of the Internet and big egos and young kids thinking they are being impressive. In some forums you ask a simple question, you could very well be intimidated by comments from members. This is where HTS is going to be different. Ask a simple question and in all likelihood you won't get intimidated, insulted or someone telling you that "search is your best friend"... instead, we will try to help you, although we may have answered the same question several times in the past. We also will not allow other members to intimidate or be condescending. At least we will try not to... it may happen, but as long as we see it or are notified of it, we will quickly resolve it.

That does not mean some threads and the information contained therein will not be intimidating to some individuals that read them. There are some I read that are somewhat intimidating to me... although I have seen so much of it, that I don't get intimidated too easily.

At any rate... it seems like you are specifically asking about electronics courses. You mentioned "ideas and documentations expounded on" here at HTS. Can you be more specific? We would like to know. While we cannot offer "online courses" by definition, we can certainly prepare more FAQs... to add to the several we have now. Can you tell us what specific information you are looking for? What specific "ideas" and "documentation" are you referring to? I know you mentioned "everything represented" on our site, but that encompasses quite a bit of information. Tell us what you would like to see to start out with? What would be a list of basic information you would like to see covered?


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

Maybe a sticky (I often question if people even read them) around basic terms and connections. From my sales background I know most of my clients require some kind of primer before we dive into differences in technologies and caveats into designs. 

For instance:
Surround sound... what is it and what isn't it?
Different types of cables, what do they do?
Where do I put my speakers?
What kinds of speakers are there?
Why do I want a subwoofer?
How does multi-zone work?

You get the idea... These are questions asked very often under headings like "noobie needs help". 

I'd be happy to write up something for you but I'm afraid I'm not in a position right now to keep it updated/edited.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

It might be that we could get a few threads for each question and allow several people to have input and offer images where appropriate. I can edit the first thread to insert suggestions as they are posted. There shouldn't be a lot of updating that is needed, although there may be some from time to time, it shouldn't be a big deal to update it. We can post them all in this AV Home Theater forum to start with and then move them to their corresponding forum when complete and make them a Sticky Thread. Then also add them to our FAQ drop down menu.


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

Just posted a quick and dirty cable type explanation.


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

Just did the same for speaker types.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I did a little format editing, not much... basically some bolding and capitalizing. Move them to the proper forum and stuck them... also added them to the FAQs/Guides navbar drop down menu.

Thanks!


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## Misfit (Dec 27, 2013)

I'm a novice, but I'll try to give a quick summary of what I've learned so far. You ready, here it goes: 

TRANSDUCER: changes one form of energy into another. Like speakers change _electrical_ current into moving air in the physical realm - _acoustical_. This "signal" travels through the air at the "speed of sound" to your eardrums. Your eardrums "transduce" this "signal" into brain waves for your to interpret. 

Visualize this scenario. The traveling of this sound is called, "signal flow". Signal Flow can be acoustical or electrical. When it's electrical, it's hidden inside cables and circuitry. When it's acoustical, you can hear it. Audio electronics is all about the times when this signal is hidden inside magical wires. You must control this "flow". 

In this world of home theaters and audio systems, we begin with a "source". This is the "player" or the beginning of the chain. Hold up. 

When you speak, your brain is the source. It's going to "output" something. It starts the chain of signal flow. You're brain is the processor. Wait. This is confusing. Your lungs are your power-amp. Mouth becomes a loudspeaker. Esophagus is like the magnet, and the mouth is like the cone and the lips are like the surround. Your jaw and skull are like the spider. The vocal chords are like the voice coil. Wait. Something like that. 

I'm talking about our physiological bodies, because the the speaker cone vibrates at the exact same rate as our ear drums or vocal chords. Isn't that neat? I think that's really neat. This rate of vibrations are called "frequencies". The diaphragm of a microphone mimics the exact vibrations as the vocal chords screaming at it. 

Some people say the range of human hearing is a range of 20 hertz to twenty thousand hertz. Or 20Hz - 20kHz. A "Sine Wave" is a pure vibration of a specific frequency. We won't even get into square waves and different wave shapes right now. That's not important for home theaters. I mention "sine wave" because musical tones are not pure oscillations of a single frequency. A single note contains many distinguishing characteristics defining it's "timbre" or color or whatever. These additional frequencies are known as "harmonics" and lavish the fundamental frequency with unique tones. This is why a horn sounds brassy and a violin sounds stringy. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, all these additional harmonics makes for a lot of crazy vibrations. Vibrations and frequencies are the same thing. 

People manipulate the tonal characteristics of many things. The acoustical characteristics of the room are part of the chain and are often ignored. 

The less frequencies required of a driver to reproduce, the more accurately it can focus on its narrower responsibilities. This is where we use crossovers to divide the frequencies into more similar groups, for more efficiency. My two-way bookshelf speakers have a passive crossover inside its cabinet. Baffle. A baffle is what separates the front waves emanating from a speaker from the waves radiating from the back of the speaker. A port. A port is an air-duct tuned to align the front and rear waves to not cancel each other out, all while increasing the sound pressure levels the enclosure is capable of (increasing an enclosure's "sensitivity" rating), while trying to avoid any prominent frequencies known as "boominess". When waves cancel each other out, they are out of phase, and you can't hear them as well. When you switch your positive and negative terminals on your speaker connections, you're messing with your polarity, which takes things out of phase. There'll be a whole chapter on wiring next week. Ohms. Passive -vs- Active. 

I give up. I'm sorry. There's too much and I'm all over the place. I thought it would be fun to try to give a quick summary, but I'm quickly becoming overwhelmed. I guess you just have to ask questions and learn from mistakes and experience. Just embrace it and read everything you can read and learn everything you can learn.


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