Audio Terminology And Definitions Dictionary

 

V  Symbol for Volt.

 

Valve  Known as vacuum tube in America, the thermionic valve is the earliest form of electronic amplification. At its simplest in the form of a triode, the valve comprises an evacuated glass case containing three electrodes  (conducting elements), the cathode, anode and grid. 

 

Variable Bitrate (VBR)   Most newer audio and video codecs employ a technology known as variable-bitrate encoding, which allows resulting files to look and sound better while still retaining a compressed, convenient file size. Essentially, VBR encoding assigns more bits to the complexly detailed portions of the original source and fewer bits to the simpler portions. Constant-bitrate (CBR) encoding, on the other hand, uses approximately the same amount of memory for both simple and complex passages, so the user is more likely to experience audible or visible loss of quality during complex parts, especially with lower-bitrate files. (See also: CBR.)

 

VCD VCD stands for Video CD, an ignored format in today's North American market. VCD was developed in the early 1990s by JVC, Matsushita, Philips, and Sony. VCDs, although having limited success in the U.S., became popular in Asia and other parts of the world for the playback of video content. VCDs use a compression system known as MPEG1 that allows 74 minutes of audio and video to be recorded on a standard CD at a resolution of 352 x 240 pixels (comparable to standard VHS).

 

Vent  An opening in a speaker's cabinet that allows the woofer's back wave to exit the cabinet and reinforce the sound wave coming from the woofer's front surface. (See also: bass reflex and port.)

 

VHF   Very High Frequency. The early terminology for  FM radio broadcasts. 

 

VHS (Video Home System)    Now almost totally superseded by various recordable DVD formats and DVRs, VHS is a video tape recording and playback format that dominated the consumer market from the late 1970s through the very early 2000s.

 

Volt   Unit of electricity (Abbr: V). A unit of electrical "pressure" . One volt is the amount of pressure that will cause one ampere of current to flow through one ohm of resistance. 

 

Volume   Subjective term for loudness (SPL); more accurately  the signal level setting of an amplifier. 

 

Vorbis    Vorbis is an "open-source" digital audio compression format (i.e., it is free). Because Vorbis is most often used in conjunction with a digital A/V container format known as "Ogg," it's usually referred to as "OggVorbis." As with MP3, Vorbis is a lossy compression system that removes information it deems inaudible, but Vorbis and MP3s use different compression algorithms. Fans claim that Vorbis outperforms MP3 and that Vorbis files sound better than their similarly sized MP3 cousins. Also, Vorbis advocates state that Vorbis files are substantially smaller than MP3 files of equivalent sonic integrity.

 

Voice Coil   A cylindrical coil of wire wound around a tube called a "former." The former/voice coil assembly is, in turn, connected directly to the driver's diaphragm or moving element. The coil/former is part of a driver's motor, the other part being the permanent magnet in which the voice coil sits. The amplifier's ever-changing signal causes the voice coil to move in the magnet's gap, thus moving the diaphragm.

 

Voice Coil Gap   The cylindrical space in a loudspeaker magnet in which the voice coil and former sit. In smaller drivers (especially tweeters), the voice coil gap is usually filled with ferrofluid to draw heat away from the voice coil and improve that driver's power handling capability.