Dynamic range

From HvWiki

Dynamic range is a term used frequently in numerous fields to describe the ratio between the smallest and largest possible values of a changeable quantity. It's frequently used as a figure of merit in electronics: larger dynamic range is better.

For instance, the dynamic range of the human ear is equal to the ratio between the threshold of hearing (ie, the quietest sound that can be perceived) and the threshold of pain (ie, the loudest sound you can stand to listen to) which works out around 120-130dB.

By analogy, the dynamic range of an electronic amplifier is often quoted as the ratio of the internally generated noise to the biggest signal it can reproduce without excessive distortion. For a good low-noise amplifier, this can be >90dB.

Vinyl records have a dynamic range of around 60-70dB, 16-bit digital audio has around 80-90 (of a theoretical 96dB) and 24-bit can exceed 100dB.

In radio engineering, the dynamic range of a receiver quantifies how good it is at receiving a desired weak signal while excluding an undesired strong signal at a different frequency. It is defined roughly as the biggest ratio in dB between the weak and strong signals for which the receiver will still copy the weaker signal acceptably well. However, there are a number of different ways to make the calculation, so you should be very careful when comparing different receivers. In particular, it depends strongly on the frequency difference between the two signals, and there is no standard value of frequency difference.

If you built a radio receiver that can detect 1 µV, and a Tesla coil that puts out 500 kV, what is the dynamic range of your workshop?