signal noise ratio
In audio technology, the signal-to- noise ratio is the ratio between the signal level and the noise level. This characteristic value corresponds to the signal-to-noise ratio( SNR).
The signal-to-noise ratio, expressed in decibels( dB), is a measure of the sensitivity of microphones and amplifiers. For A/D converters, the signal-to-noise ratio depends on the level of quantization and is about 100 dB for 16 bits. If the quantization is increased by two additional quantization bits, the signal-to-noise ratio increases by 12 dB in each case. With a quantization of 24 bits, the signal-to-noise ratio thus increases by 48 dB.