dBV also references voltage, but does so without regard for impedance. 0dB equals 1 volt. The dBV rating is most commonly found in reference to consumer equipment that uses operating levels of -10 dBV.

An imbalance that can sometimes occur at an A/D converter, where DC (direct current) which is basically a constant voltage, is introduced into the digitized signal. Apart from reducing headroom, DC content can introduce clicks and pops while the audio is being edited.

A recordable DVD disc. Not to be confused with DVD-RAM and DVD-RW, both of which are rewritable mediums. DVD-R is a write once, read many medium which currently holds about 4.7 gigabytes of information.

A type of DVD media that is designed for storage and backup. No other equipment other than the drive itself is required for a user to use DVD-RAM. In fact, DVD-RAM discs act very much like hard drives, other than being a much slower medium, in that a user can simple drag and drop files on to the desktop icon.

In reference to power amplifiers, the damping specification is the ability of the amplifier to control speaker motion once signal has stopped. The effects of damping are most apparent at low frequencies - an amplifier with a high damping factor will make a speaker sound "tighter" in the low end, while low damping factors result in indistinct bass.

Physical click stop in a control knob/switch such as a pan or EQ cut/boost knob.

The portion of a microphone that is mechanically moved by sound waves. The resulting interaction with a backplate or moving coil (depending on the microphone type) allows the conversion of sound energy to electrical energy.

A type of antenna with two defined opposing radiating elements, both of the proper length for the frequency of operation, and each forming a counterpoise for the other.

The property of transmitting /receiving energy more strongly from/to certain directions, than others.

A method of "burning" a CD, disc-at-once writes to the disc in one pass - the laser in the CD burner never turns off, even in silent passages. Required by mass duplicators of Red Book audio CDs. Although CDs written track-at-once will generally play in consumer CD players, the duplicators at mass manufacturers will reject such a disc as fatally flawed.