RIAA equalization
When you listen to music, the sound that you hear comes out of a small speaker, like the one in your radio or phone. But before the music gets to the speaker, it has to go through a bunch of different machines and wires first.
One of these machines is called a turntable, which is what people used before they had CDs or digital music. When you put a record on the turntable, it spins around and a little needle on the end of an arm goes back and forth to read the grooves that are on the record.
But there's a problem with this way of playing music. The different instruments and voices in a song come out of your speakers at different volumes, so you might not be able to hear everything clearly. To fix this problem, scientists and engineers came up with something called RIAA equalization.
RIAA stands for the Recording Industry Association of America, which is a group of people who work with music companies. They made a set of rules for how records should be made, and one of the rules is that the volume of the music has to be adjusted before it's recorded onto the record.
This is where RIAA equalization comes in. The volume of the music is changed using a special curve that scientists came up with. The curve makes certain parts of the music louder or softer depending on what sounds are in the song. For example, if there's a lot of bass guitar in the song, the curve will make that part of the music quieter so it doesn't overpower everything else.
When the record is played back on a turntable, another machine called a preamp uses the opposite curve to adjust the volume back to normal so you can hear everything clearly. This is why modern speakers have a button or switch that says "RIAA" or "PHONO" – it's to make sure the music sounds the way it's supposed to.
So, in short, RIAA equalization is a fancy way of adjusting the volume of music on a record so that everything sounds good when you play it back on your speakers.
One of these machines is called a turntable, which is what people used before they had CDs or digital music. When you put a record on the turntable, it spins around and a little needle on the end of an arm goes back and forth to read the grooves that are on the record.
But there's a problem with this way of playing music. The different instruments and voices in a song come out of your speakers at different volumes, so you might not be able to hear everything clearly. To fix this problem, scientists and engineers came up with something called RIAA equalization.
RIAA stands for the Recording Industry Association of America, which is a group of people who work with music companies. They made a set of rules for how records should be made, and one of the rules is that the volume of the music has to be adjusted before it's recorded onto the record.
This is where RIAA equalization comes in. The volume of the music is changed using a special curve that scientists came up with. The curve makes certain parts of the music louder or softer depending on what sounds are in the song. For example, if there's a lot of bass guitar in the song, the curve will make that part of the music quieter so it doesn't overpower everything else.
When the record is played back on a turntable, another machine called a preamp uses the opposite curve to adjust the volume back to normal so you can hear everything clearly. This is why modern speakers have a button or switch that says "RIAA" or "PHONO" – it's to make sure the music sounds the way it's supposed to.
So, in short, RIAA equalization is a fancy way of adjusting the volume of music on a record so that everything sounds good when you play it back on your speakers.