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Collaboration, Voice & AV · Intermediate

Dynamic Range

The ratio in decibels between the loudest undistorted level and the noise floor of a system or signal.

Definition

A device's dynamic range determines how much variation in signal level it can handle. In digital audio, theoretical dynamic range is about 6 dB per bit: 16-bit is about 96 dB and 24-bit is about 144 dB. Compressors reduce a program's dynamic range to keep speech consistently audible.

Example

A DSP with +24 dBu maximum output and -86 dBu noise floor has 110 dB of dynamic range.

Exam tip

Dynamic range covers noise floor to clipping; headroom covers nominal level to clipping.

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