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In Reply to: What is Headroom and how can it be described? posted by airtime on June 26, 2012 at 09:52:47:
Step back to the broader concept -- music is dynamic. There is the perception of an average volume with some parts that will be softer and others much louder. Live music is what it is, in this regard.
Ideally, if recorded accurately (a very big "if"), you'd want your system to correctly reproduce the whole dynamic range.
All of the aspects mentioned by others can be more important in some systems and less so in others. An amp with a lot of reserve would be a lot more important with a pair of inefficient, current-sucking 4 ohm speakers than with a set of higher impedance, higher efficiency speakers.
And, completely ignoring power amps, headroom is important in the recording studio and from the beginning of the playback source. You don't want the microphone or its preamp overloading, or the average recording levels so close to their maximum that peaks are constantly clipping in the recording or preamp stages. (Of course, sometimes that is the "sound" people want.)
The needed technical aspects of headroom will vary with the details of the equipment involved and its position in the chain, but the concept is pretty simple. When at the desired average sound level, is there enough capacity left in the system to capture or reproduce the peaks without distorting them?
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Follow Ups
- The prior answers are too narrow... - mls-stl 17:33:09 06/26/12 (0)
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