Technical information

Impedance A measure of electrical resistance and reactance. These are the
properties of a component that limit the amount of current that can flow through
a circuit. Resistance affects the DC part of the electrical current, while reactance
affects the AC part. Measured in ohms.
Infinite baffle Another term for acoustic suspension. The term is descriptive, in
that if the baffle of a loudspeaker were to be infinitely extended in all directions,
there could be no movement of air between the front and back of the driver. Of
course, with a real infinite baffle speaker the baffle is wrapped around into a
convenient package.
Infrasonic Audio tones of frequencies lower than capable of being detected by the
human ear, generally below 20 hertz.
Interconnect The cables used to transfer an analogue line level, or digital signal
from a source component to an amplifier or recording device. They are normally
two sets of electrically shielded cables with RCA plugs on each end, however some
systems have adopted the XLR plugs and sockets used in much professional
equipment.
Integrated amplifier An amplifier consisting of both a preamplifier and a power
amplifier. If properly designed, an integrated amplifier should offer better sound
qualities, due to less connectors and cables between components. It is still the
case however, that most of the high end amplifiers are offered as two boxes,
generally because the amount of electronics in each make it difficult to build a
sensible one box solution. There are exceptions to this, and we would direct you
to our own AT2000 integrated amplifier in this instance.
Intermodulation Distortion If two tones are produced at the same time as each
other, they can interact in a piece of equipment to produce other tones. Those
tones are the sum and difference between the two original tones and,
consequently, are generally not harmonics of either tone. As such,
intermodulation distortion is generally more audible, and objectionable, than
harmonic distortion. If the standard SMPTE test tones are applied (60 hertz and
7,000 hertz sine waves), then you can expect to see intermodulation distortion
peaks at 6,940 and 7,060 hertz. In practice, small levels of harmonic distortion
in the original signals will lead to other IM peaks, so you might see one at 6,880
hertz (i.e. 7,000 - 2 x 60) and so on.
J, K