What is the relationship between a digital audio signal and sound pressure level?

1. What is sound pressure level in audio?
2. What is the difference between audio and sound signal?
3. What is a digital audio signal?
4. Why is sound pressure level important?

What is sound pressure level in audio?

Sound pressure level (SPL) is the pressure level of a sound, measured in decibels (dB). It is equal to 20 x the Log¹⁰ of the ratio of the Root Mean Square (RMS) of sound pressure to the reference of sound pressure (the reference sound pressure in air is 2 x 10-5 N/m2, or 0,00002 Pa).

What is the difference between audio and sound signal?

The key difference between sound and audio is their form of energy. Sound is mechanical wave energy (longitudinal sound waves) that propagate through a medium causing variations in pressure within the medium. Audio is made of electrical energy (analog or digital signals) that represent sound electrically.

What is a digital audio signal?

Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, samples are taken 44,100 times per second, each with 16-bit sample depth.

Why is sound pressure level important?

Sound pressure is the difference between the pressure from a sound wave and the ambient pressure of what the sound is traveling through (usually air for our purposes). The reason sound pressure levels and decibels are so important is that it gives us a numerical scale to work with to help prevent hearing loss.