ELi5 How does the music get louder when you “turn up” the volume? Is it more power being released?
In: Technology
Yes, more power is being sent from the amplifier to the speakers.
The sound is made by wiggling the speaker cones using an electromagnet. The farther the speaker cone moves, the louder the sound (this is different than how *fast* the cone moves back and forth, that’s what controls pitch). Moving the cone back and forth farther while maintaining frequency requires pushing & pulling it harder, so the electromagnet has to work harder, so it needs more power. The amplifier does this by increasing the voltage of the signal going to the speakers. When you turn up the volume, you’re turning up the gain (increase) of the amplifier.
The speakers are shaking with a greater amplitude, meaning going in and out thurther. This displaces more air creating a larger sound wave. When this wave passes through the air, it vibrates your ear drum greater so you perceive it louder.
You are exactly right that you need more power to drive the speaker to move bigger distances.
Yes. Imagine your music is like a tiny little person singing in a box. When you turn up the volume, it’s like giving that person a big microphone to sing into. The microphone makes their voice louder so you can hear them better.
Similarly, when you turn up the volume, it gives more power to the music so it can play louder and you can hear it better.
You can think of it as water through a pipe. At full blast you get the full power of the amp going into your speakers, all the water is flowing. The volume is restricting a certain amount of water to flow, all the way to closed. Some volumes, (especially mixers,) even have a zero at the top and then negative numbers as you go down in power/volume.
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