Give Home Electronics the Audio Edge

The market for home electronics is booming, with hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts letting their imaginations run wild and creating new gadgets and prototypes by the dozen. Whether they are interested amateurs wanting to learn more about electronics, or engineers prototyping their new designs for commercial applications, these creative minds are using the most up-to-date components.
In the last few years, a number of online suppliers have made it their business to source the most sophisticated components and starter kits to get electronics enthusiasts going. These components, plus the passion of hobbyists, are the magic ingredients that can unleash a wealth of new ideas, from robotics to e-textiles.
As well as the circuit boards, relay switches and microcontrollers that form the hub of most new designs, these online suppliers also provide a wealth of accessories that support the creation of some fascinating creations. Take, for example, an audio amplifier kit, which adds superior sound capability to any new design.
Look online for an audio amplifier kit and it is easy to find some excellent technology. The STA540 audio amplifier kit, which is widely available, is a stereo amplifier that offers fully functional, two-channel audio amplification, and includes a standby switch, volume control and indicator LEDs. The kit also comes with a 6400BG heatsink to dissipate any potentially damaging heat from the circuits.
When the kit arrives it is completely disassembled, so you would need to solder everything to the PCB, so there is a lot of work to do, but therein lies all the fun. Assembling the kits is the best way to learn about how all of the components function, how they interact, and how they work together to deliver. The joy of these kits is as much in the work it takes to put them together as it is in the final creation.

One of the best things about buying these kinds of kit from knowledgeable online suppliers is that the websites are often run by professional electronics engineers, who are also home electronics enthusiasts themselves. They understand the components they supply, and they ensure that they only supply the best quality kits and parts.
The biggest benefit of this is that they are not only there to sell you products, but also to help you to choose the right components, and to advise you after you have bought a kit on how best to use it. Often they are open to answering questions about what to buy or how to use a particular piece of kit.
Knowing that this kind of support is there is one of the most reassuring things that you can have as an electronics enthusiast, especially if you are prototyping something new and want to get it right first time.
So, for anyone looking for audio amplifier kits or any other home electronics component, there is not only a wealth of gadgetry available, but a lot of advice, too.
If you have a design in mind that needs a reliable and high-quality audio amplifier, it is easy to find the right parts. Something like the STA540 audio amplifier kit is a good starting point for anyone wanting to learn about audio electronics, but always remember to shop around for the best deal and ask the help of experts when you are choosing what to buy.

Simple Audio Secrets - Setting Up Your Home Audio Production Studio

Audio education production is a phrase that can be looked at in two ways. Let me explain what I mean:

1. Audio education production can be a way of describing how to implement audio in the production of education video.
2. Audio education production can be a way of producing videos that focus on the education methodology that focuses on techniques that are best for people who learn through listening.

There are different ways of learning including visual, verbal, physical, and aural. Some people learn better and faster with aural teaching. Others learn and retain more when they can use several senses at the same time. What this means is that when you are producing a video, you need to consider both the end-user and how important your audio is to this listener.As for education on how to best use audio in video production, do not overlook the importance of using good equipment and the right words. You would think twice about creating a website to sell your products with cheesy looking graphics. You should be just as careful about educating yourself on the proper methods of getting the best voice over on your video.

What, you ask, do I have to do to gear up for audio education for video production? Here are some guidelines that offer a good starting place.
Some people just do not have the voice for audio production. Tape your own voice and listen to it. While we tend to be critical of our own voice, try to be objective. Do you speak clearly? If you are not sure, ask someone else to listen to it and give you feedback on whether they can understand what you are saying.
If your voice passes the grade, the next step is to use the best microphone you can afford. Even if your voice is perfect, cracks and snaps and burbles will not make the listening experience pleasant.
The voice is okay. The microphone is okay. The next step is to make sure that the message delivered is crisp, clear, and concise. The best voice and the best sound will not compensate for a rambling voice on your video.
If you get the first type of audio education mastered, your videos will be able to deliver the kind of audio needed for the second type of audio education.

Advantages of Home Theater Systems

Have you ever wondered why people prefer to pay just to watch movie at the cinema? The answer is simple. It is simply because the sound system is excellent and the screen is bigger. This is great if you are watching action movies. However, with the advance technology today, home theater system is designed to bring satisfaction to users who want to enjoy watching movie at home. This system will give the amazing experience that you just can't get from a normal television set. It consists of a big screen LCD and a set of speakers.
Here are some of the main advantages of having home theater system at home. First of all, the main important difference of using this system is the sound effects. You can just compare the sound quality with an ordinary television. Using this system, you can actually listen to each and every word clearly including the breathing and sigh sounds. The good thing is the sound projection is 180 degree. You will have left, right and center speakers so that the sounds are spread evenly in your living room. If you can listen clearly, some of the movies has different soundtrack coming from the right speaker and left speaker. This is the sound system effect for most of the action movies.

Another great thing about this home theater system is the screen. You are able to watch your movies clearly and watch in the dark. Using this system, the images are clearer and sharper compared to using normal television. Some people may not feel the need to watch movie at a bigger screen but you will surely feel the difference as you don't have to stress your eyes watching movies at a small screen television.
These are among the great experiences of having a home theater system at home. Now, you don't have to queue for hours and spend extra bucks just to buy your movie ticket. You can always watch movies at home at your own comfort zone and during your leisure time!

How To Stream Audio Through Your Home

A large number of wireless audio transmitter products have emerged over the years. They promise to cut the cord to your audio equipment. We will examine the impact of new technologies on the performance of these products. Also, we'll examine if they keep their promise of eliminating the cable clutter.
The first form of wireless audio transmission was in the form of AM and FM radio stations. While still being popular today, FM radio is now being replaced by new technologies including HD radio, satellite radio and DAB broadcasts. A range of today's wireless consumer products cut the cord such as wireless surround sound kits, baby monitors, wireless microphones and Bluetooth transmitters.
Setting up speakers in another room and distributing music throughout the house are some of the applications of wireless audio. Many homes are not wired for audio. The technologies used today all have pros and cons as we will examine.
FM transmitters are using the most traditional technology in which audio is sent by changing the frequency of a radio-frequency carrier. The technology, which is called frequency modulation (FM), is fairly simple and cost-effecive to build and offers high range. While most of today's 900 MHz products use FM transmission, FM has some major problems.
FM transmissions will pick up static which is noticeable as a background hiss depending on the location of the wireless receiver. The reason for the varying quality is a phenomenon called multipath fading which is a result of reflected radio waves cancelling each other out. Using two antennae is one method some devices cope with this problem (diversity receivers). Another problem is that FM radios easily pick up interference from competing wireless transmitters.
Another technology which has gained popularity recently is called Bluetooth. Bluetooth was originally designed to connect computer peripheral devices wirelessly. Before the signal is broadcast, Bluetooth transmitters will convert the audio into a digital format. One of the advantages is the high robustness against wireless interference. However, Bluetooth was not designed for audio transmissions. Therefore is does have several problems. Bluetooth only offers a range of 30 ft or less and will compress the audio since it does not offer enough space to transmit an uncompressed CD-quality signal. Due to the compression, the audio quality will be degraded compared to the original. Another problem is that Bluetooth will introduce a delay or latency to the signal during the transmission. This delay is a particular problem for video and surround sound applications. In these applications the sound from the wireless speakers would be out of sync with the video and remaining speakers.

The technologies used for satellite radio and terrestrial digital radio offer high range. However, they also use extensive audio compression. Further, a delay of up to several seconds is introduced.
Another technology sends the audio digitally without using audio compression. The signal will retain the original quality by avoiding audio compression. This technology offers an audio latency of less than 1 ms. Therefore these transmitters can be used for wireless speaker kits in a home theater setup and other real-time applications.
To be robust against interference from other wireless devices, this technology uses forward error correction. This mechanism can repair errors during the transmission. Some recent products use the 5.8 GHz frequency band which is less crowded than the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands. The result is high reliability. Other than Bluetooth, this technology can operate and number of receivers per transmitter which is key for sending audio to several locations throughout the house.

5 Tips For Setting Up a Home Audio Recording Studio

When putting together a home audio recording studio, there is no doubt that equipment will play a major factor in the success of the recordings. However, this does not mean you have to pay top dollar for everything you purchase. Most people are going to initially navigate to the well established brand names. And if you have thousands of extra dollars collecting dust, why not? These companies manufacture great equipment. But it is not necessary to limit yourself to these brands. In fact there are countless other companies out there that produce top-notch equipment and at much more reasonable prices. I have made it a point to do my homework before making any purchases. And it has seemed to work well for me. Here are a few tips when it comes to purchasing equipment for your home audio recording studio.
1. Before any recording is done, make sure the recording space sounds good! Test the area with room measurement software. REW Room EQ Wizard is amazing... and free. Adequately treat the problem areas with bass traps and broadband absorbers. There is no point in having quality equipment if the room sounds like crap.
2. Research! This is why God gave us the internet. There are a ton of great recording forums out there that can teach you everything you need to know about equipment. Members of these forums may be able to lead you in the direction of some low-cost gems. Also check out the review sections on music instrument retail sites.

3. Check out equipment shootout videos on the internet. There are plenty of quality videos that compare equipment from different brands. Use your ears. Decide what you like best. It's okay to pay attention to brand names, put don't put too much value on them. There are less well-known companies out there that make excellent equipment. Seek them out. Quality doesn't have to come with a high price tag.
4. Study the fundamentals of setting up a recording studio. Good equipment is of little use if you have no idea how to set it up correctly. Just imagine having several thousand dollars invested in microphones. Now envision an unsatisfactory final project because you neglected to learn the proper placement of these audio-capture devices. Extremely depressing, isn't it?
5. Practice! Learn your equipment just like you would a music instrument. Get accustomed to all the features. Regardless of the quality of the equipment, you have to know how to use it. Being able to get the maximum capability out of your equipment can make all the difference.
These are just a few suggestions to consider when setting up a home recording studio and purchasing equipment.

Working Online From Home As an Audio Transcriber

Working online from home as an audio transcriber has become very popular in recent years due to the internet. A transcribers job is to transcribe an audio tape, CD or file into written words. In this article you will learn what skills that is required and how you can start working from home as an audio transcriber.
When you are working online from home as an audio transcriber you will receive an audio file from the client via the internet. You will then write/transcribe each word you hear into a document and return the transcribed document to the client. There is a wide range of professional fields that are in need of a transcription service, such as medical, corporate and legal, but also authors, students and academics use audio transcribers that are working online from home.
The most important skill that you need is accurate and fast typing skills. Clients usually require you to be able to type 60-70 words pr minute. If you want to test how fast you are, visit typingtest.com to take a free typing test. A common requirement from clients in certain fields is to have knowledge of the terminology used in the profession your clients are in, such as knowledge of medical terminology if you are working for a health care service etc.

You can get started working online from home as an audio transcriber with your own computer with a good word processor such as MS Word installed. You will also need a good foot pedal so that you are able to start and stop the audio files as you are typing. This will speed up your typing a lot.
To find work as a transcriber working online from home, you can post or search for ads at online services such as CraigsList or freelance directories such as Elance and iFreelance.
Working online from home as an audio transcriber requires a few skills, but with a little bit of practice and study, an audio transcription job can make you a nice steady full time income.

If you are looking for other ways to make an income working online from home, please visit

AV Receiver - Heart Of Your Home Theater

Audio Video Receivers are the heart of any home theater systems. They are basically amplifiers that can amplify sound from various sources. Most AV receivers have multiple amplifiers for best results. They can take input from various sources such as Blue Ray devices, DVD players, gaming consoles such as Ps3, TV boxes etc. They can route the video you want to your TV and process, amplify and send the audio to your speakers.
Difference Between Stereo and AV receivers
Stereos can send sound output to only two channels namely left and right and sometimes to the sub-woofer. Audio video receivers, also known sometimes by the name of 5.1 receiver, can send the audio output to five or more speakers. More advanced receivers can do up to 9 speakers.
The main functions of AV receivers are briefly discussed below:
Decoders They are known to have ability to decode sound i.e. process the sound. For example, a they can receive a 2 channel sound but send it to 5 different channels to produce surround effect.
DSP effect They can also manipulate sound to produce different effects, such as equalization and field simulations such as "concert", "hall" etc.
Video upconvertion This is usually called upconvertion or transcoding. They can convert videos from one format to the other. For example, a AV receiver can convert a 480 pixels video(480 lines per frame) to 720 pixels video(720 lines per frame and also change a component video to s-video. For people with incompatible devices, a AV receiver can be very beneficial.

Amplification Last but not the least, amplification. Audio video receivers amply different channels of sound that can be send to individual speakers. a 5.1 amplifier can send sound to a center speaker, left front and right front speaker, rear left and rear right speakers. All of these channels are amplified individually. High quality receiver offers very less distortion of sound offering as clear sound as possible. Thus while buying a receiver you should always consider its distortion level. Distortion less than.1% are really unnoticeable so try not to buy the ones with distortion level more than 0.1%. Louder the sound needed more amplification is needed, meaning more power is used by the amplifier.