signal to noise

[southprk 10+ year member]

So I've been looking at some amps, thinking of buying a visonik v900xd, or a hifonics bx1500D. They seem to have very similar stats, with the exception of signal to noise ratio, and crossover slope.

the v900xd has 96db signal to noise, and the hifonics has 90db .. big deal or not??

The visonik has shrouds, but doesn't look as good ... anyone care to school me on signal to noise?

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[Bavarian3 10+ year member]

get the hifonics....i actually am not sure wat the signal to noise ratio is... im pretty sure its nothing to even bother looking at.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Both are well below the level of audibility and that is all that matters.

Signal to noise is the ratio of the music signal to noise produced by the amp (hiss, static, etc...) and is usually expressed in dB. dB is a logrithmic scale not a linear one so for a perceived doubling in volume you are looking at 10 dB. 90dB of signal over noise would mean that the signal (music) is 2^9 (512) times louder than the noise.

 

[southprk 10+ year member]

Ok, I definately understand the physics (and math) behind it, thanks a lot!

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Both are well below the level of audibility and that is all that matters.
Signal to noise is the ratio of the music signal to noise produced by the amp (hiss, static, etc...) and is usually expressed in dB. dB is a logrithmic scale not a linear one so for a perceived doubling in volume you are looking at 10 dB. 90dB of signal over noise would mean that the signal (music) is 2^9 (512) times louder than the noise.

dB = 20 * Log V1/V2

90dB S/N means the signal is 31,622 times higher than the noise. 96dB is 63,095:1, about twice as high.

You're correct in that in a car you won't notice the difference.

 

[JLCivic 10+ year member]

Another thing I always mention when people are talking about s/n ratio(some people buy amps, cd players, etc based on that number solely).

Example: If you have a deck that had a s/n ratio of 20000 to one, yet you ran it to an amplifer that only had a s/n ratio of 90 db. Your new, system s/n ratio is 90 db.

If your cd player has a s/n ratio of 90 db, buying an amp with a 91 db s/n ratio would give you NO added benefit(not that we could hear that difference anyway).

It is the whole "weakest link in the chain" idea.