Owner's manual

Glossary of Terms
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Balanced - Audio cabling that uses two twisted conductors enclosed in a single shield, thus allowing
relatively long cable runs with minimal signal loss and reduced induced noise such as hum.
Class A - A design technique used in electronic devices such that their active components are drawing
current and working throughout the full signal cycle, thus yielding a more linear response. This
increased linearity results in fewer harmonics generated, hence lower distortion in the output signal.
Condenser microphone - A microphone design that utilizes an electrically charged thin conductive
diaphragm stretched close to a metal disk called a backplate. Incoming sound pressure causes the
diaphragm to vibrate, in turn causing the capacitance to vary in a like manner, which causes a
variance in its output voltage. Condenser microphones tend to have excellent transient response but
require an external voltage source, most often in the form of 48 volts of “phantom power.”
DAW - An acronym for “Digital Audio Workstation”—that is, any device that can record, play back,
edit, and process digital audio.
dB - Short for “decibel,” a logarithmic unit of measure used to determine, among other things,
power ratios, voltage gain, and sound pressure levels.
dBm - Short for “decibels as referenced to milliwatt,” dissipated in a standard load of 600 ohms.
1 dBm into 600 ohms results in 0.775 volts RMS.
dBV - Short for “decibels as referenced to voltage,” without regard for impedance; thus, one volt
equals one dBV.
DI - Short for “Direct Inject,” a recording technique whereby the signal from a high-impedance
instrument such as electric guitar or bass is routed to a mixer or tape recorder input by means of a
“DI box,” which raises the signal to the correct voltage level at the right impedance.
DSP - Short for “digital signal processing.”
Dynamic microphone - A type of microphone that generates signal with the use of a very thin, light
diaphragm which moves in response to sound pressure. That motion in turn causes a voice coil which
is suspended in a magnetic field to move, generating a small electric current. Dynamic mics are
generally less expensive than condenser or ribbon mics and do not require external power to operate.
EQ - Short for “Equalization,” a circuit that allows selected frequency areas in an audio signal to be
cut or boosted.
FET - Short for “Field Effect Transistor,” a type of transistor that relies on an electric field to control
the shape and hence the conductivity of a “channel” in a semiconductor material.
Hi-Z - Short for “High Impedance.” The 710’s Hi-Z input allows direct connection of an instrument
such as electric guitar or bass via a standard unbalanced 1/4" jack.
Impedance - A description of a circuit’s resistance to a signal, as measured in ohms or thousands of
ohms (K ohms). The symbol for ohm is .
JFET - Abbreviation for Junction Field Effect Transistor, a specific type of FET which has some
similarities to traditional bipolar transistor designs that can make it more appropriate for use in some
audio circuit designs. (see “FET”)
Line level - Refers to the voltages used by audio devices such as mixers, signal processors, tape
recorders, and DAWs. Professional audio systems typically utilize line level signals of +4 dBM (which