jt1stcav Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 This is a pathetic question, but my non-audiophile friend argues up and down that "Hertz" and "Cycles Per Second" are totally different, and I'm telling him that the term "Hertz" (Hz) is just a newer term for "Cycles", and that they are the very same thing. I'm sure that the word "Hertz" is actually the last name of a scholar who studied physics (?), and thus others in the study of tone coined the term using his last name...I think! For example: a 16 Hz tone is equivalent to 16 cycles per second (16 beats in a second). I am right, aren't I? I really need that case of Heinekin! Thanks for helping... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 A standard measure of frequency is Hertz, abbreviated Hz. It means "cycles per second." CPS (cycles per second) is the measure of how frequently an alternating current changes direction. This term has been replaced by the term hertz (Hz). Sound is characterized by its frequency and intensity. The frequency of a sound contributes to its pitch and is measured by counting the number of cycles per second in the vibration. Intensity is a measure of loudness. If you have ever played a piano, you know where middle C is on the keyboard (see Figure 1). If the piano is properly tuned, middle C has a frequency of 256 cycles per second, high C (7 white keys to the right) has a frequency of 512 cycles per second. People with normal hearing can tell the difference between two sounds that differ by less 0.5%. In order to appreciate how small a difference in frequency this is you need only realize that middle C differs from C sharp (the black piano key immediately to its right of C) by more than 5%. http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/oto/research/cochlea/Volta/03.html Drink up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 Thanks, colin...I couldn't have worded it better myself (really, I couldn't)! I'll save a cold one for you, too! I appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf (1857-1894), German physicist, born in Hamburg, and educated at the University of Berlin. From 1885 to 1889 he was a professor of physics at the technical school in Karlsruhe and after 1889 a professor of physics at the University in Bonn. Hertz clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884. Hertz proved that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed of light and which possess many other properties of light. His experiments with these electromagnetic waves led to the development of the wireless telegraph and the radio. His name also became the term used for radio and electrical frequencies: hertz (Hz), as in kilohertz (KHz) or megahertz (MHz). The hertz designation has been an official part of the international metric system since 1933. Before Hertz gained professorships in Karlsruhe and Bonn, he had studied under the famous scientist Hermann von Helmholtz in Bonn, and it was Helmholtz who encouraged Hertz to attempt to win the science prize that led to some of Hertz's most important discoveries. From 1885 to 1889 Hertz became the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves, and to establish the fact that light was a form of electromagnetic radiation. (The Italian Marconi didn't begin his own wireless experiments until 1894, based on the earlier work of Hertz, Maxwell, and others.) Hertz probably would have gone on to make many more scientific contributions, but he died quite young, less than a month before his 37th birthday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 Ray, thank you for your help. You are a true scholar and a Klipschan! By the way... Just wanna say I wish you had won the Storyteller contest. Regardless, I think all us readers of this forum and of Klipsch as a whole are the real winners...your devotion to love and to Klipsch shows us the mettle of which you're made of, and I (we all) salute you for being a part of our world! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen328 Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 Yup, these guys covered it pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 Stephen328, I just gotta know... Did your 15" passive subwoofer from dbx come from DAK Industries of Canoga Park, CA? In '94 I ordered the Model db-SW15 Plus, and replaced the cheap dbx driver with a JL Audio 15W6 dual voice coil driver at 6 ohms. I installed more internal bracing and kleats to stiffen the rather crude 3 cubic foot sealed enclosure, added more foam insulation, and ditched the clunky passive crossover. I powered the subwoofer with a Carver M-400t "cube" Magnetic Field amp, using an AudioConrtol Richter Scale Series III crossover set at 70 Hz and below (at the time, my mains were Magnepan MGLR1 planar loudspeakers). Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 Ah! Drew Alan Kaplan (DAK). Wasn't he a great writer making junk look good in print? I still have a few of his wares around here somewhere. Like the SAE 5000A Click and Pop Assasin ($149) and the Equalizer-Amp for your Sony Walkman (from Korex?). That SAE is still in mint shape. I saw one about a year ago sold on eBay for well over $300! Why? I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 Yeah, Drew sure had a way with words. He could describe a BSR 10-band graphic equalizer/spectrum analyzer, and you'd think you were buying a Tascam M600 Series high-performance multitrack mixing console! What a salesman! I still have an SAE A205 Dual High Resolution amp that I bought from DAK that powered my sub after I disconnected the Carver M-400t (due to a buzz that came through my Cornwalls...the Carver's Magnetic Field coils were the culprit). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancestorm Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 ---------------- On 1/17/2003 10:05:50 AM Ray Garrison wrote: Hertz, Heinrich Rudolf (1857-1894), German physicist, born in Hamburg, and educated at the University of Berlin. From 1885 to 1889 he was a professor of physics at the technical school in Karlsruhe and after 1889 a professor of physics at the University in Bonn. Hertz clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1884. Hertz proved that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed of light and which possess many other properties of light. His experiments with these electromagnetic waves led to the development of the wireless telegraph and the radio. His name also became the term used for radio and electrical frequencies: hertz (Hz), as in kilohertz (KHz) or megahertz (MHz). The hertz designation has been an official part of the international metric system since 1933. Before Hertz gained professorships in Karlsruhe and Bonn, he had studied under the famous scientist Hermann von Helmholtz in Bonn, and it was Helmholtz who encouraged Hertz to attempt to win the science prize that led to some of Hertz's most important discoveries. From 1885 to 1889 Hertz became the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves, and to establish the fact that light was a form of electromagnetic radiation. (The Italian Marconi didn't begin his own wireless experiments until 1894, based on the earlier work of Hertz, Maxwell, and others.) Hertz probably would have gone on to make many more scientific contributions, but he died quite young, less than a month before his 37th birthday. ---------------- Wow, I just graduated college in May of last year and feel like I'm back in the books after reading that . Just kidding, very informative column, yo's haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted January 20, 2003 Author Share Posted January 20, 2003 Yeah lancestorm, some of these Klipschans on this forum just don't fool around. You ask a question, even dumb ones, and some of 'em will go out of their ways to give you a concise, informative and straightforward answer! That's what makes this forum so great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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