The More I Read Here.....

[arcaxis]

.... The more questions I have.

I see the subject of headroom come up often and I can understand this is a measure of the dynamic range of a piece of gear, but as I browse through the specs on preamps and mixers I have or on manufacturers sites, I don't see a spec that says headroom. I do see specs typically for Max Input, Gain Range, Sensitivity Range, etc. If these are the specs that determine headroom, how do I figure out how much headroom a piece of gear has?

[Massive Master]

"Headroom" is one of those weird words... Technically, it's an amps ability to exceed its rated power for short durations to allow peaks without clipping.

It's come to have several definitions in audio... For the most part, it's an objective thing... "Leave a little headroom" would just be leaving a few dB of room on a track.

An amp that "has a lot of headroom" might just mean an amp that is overpowered for a specific application (my old (guitar) touring rig had an 1800 watt amplifier for a cabinet rated at 360 watts). While it can easily blow the speakers, it delivers very clean sound at high levels with almost no undesired distortion.

So basically and non-technically, think of "headroom" as a simple figure of "where you're at" versus "how far can you go."

Hope that helps...

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com

[TexRoadkill]

Often the term applies to a unit's ability to go above 0db on the meters and not distort.

[Robert D]

A few things it doesn't mean..........

1 The distance between the cups on a set of headphones.

2 How many more drugs the lead singer can do before he ODs.

3 Where the drummer takes his groupie/girlfriend during all the overdubs.

4 The distance between the cups on a set of ---------

[Massive Master]

HA!

[Warhead]

Originally posted by Robert D
3 Where the drummer takes his groupie/girlfriend during all the overdubs.

hahahahaha that be funny shit...

War

Warren Dent
www.frontendaudio.com