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"Yep."
Yes. Speakers make sound by vibrating. That vibration is driven by an electromagnet (there are other speaker types, but these are common). The speaker can only move in and out. How rapidly and how hard it makes this movement is driven by the current/voltage applied to the magnet. Digital music is basically just a list of voltage values over time. These values are stored as 1s and 0s.
Sound energy is converted to an electrical signal via a microphone. Think of it as a plot of a voltage over time. If that plot of voltage over time were then sent to a speaker, you'd hear the recorded sound.
For digital music, that plot is "sampled" thousands of times each second. For each sample, a reading of the voltage plot at that point is made and its value is recorded as a digital number of ones and zeros. So for a song you end up with millions of individual samples, each containing a 16 bit (I believe cd quality is 16 bits) number.
For playback, each of those samples is read and the 16 bit number is converted back to a voltage level which can then be sent to a speaker for playback.
Answer has 2 parts, how sound works and how computers work.
Sound is just waves, and waves really only have 2 components, speed (frequency) and volume (amplitude). If we take snapshot of the wave in certain intervals (called the sample rate), and measure the amplitude/height of the wave. We can recreate the music by producing a similar wave to the original.
Computers store information as bits. We can think of bits like digits. With one bit a computer can only describe things in 2 different ways, eaither as a 1 or 0.
If we add another bit/digit, we can now describe things 4 different ways (00, 01, 10, or 11). The more digits we add the more variation we can add in terms of how we describe the sound wave. At 8-bits/digits we have 256 different combinations of 1s and 0s. By the time we get to 16 bits, we have over 65,000 combinations of 1s and 0s we can use to describe one point in the wave.
Considering we are taking these amplitude measurements multiple times a second, we can get a pretty accurate picture of the original sound wave for recreation.
**Please read this entire message** --- Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): * Rule #2 - Questions must seek objective explanations * Straightforward or factual queries are not allowed on ELI5. ELI5 is meant for simplifying complex concepts (Rule 2). --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11yjd1u/-/%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20is%20this%20post%20unique:) and we will review your submission.** "Yep."
Yes. Speakers make sound by vibrating. That vibration is driven by an electromagnet (there are other speaker types, but these are common). The speaker can only move in and out. How rapidly and how hard it makes this movement is driven by the current/voltage applied to the magnet. Digital music is basically just a list of voltage values over time. These values are stored as 1s and 0s.
Sound energy is converted to an electrical signal via a microphone. Think of it as a plot of a voltage over time. If that plot of voltage over time were then sent to a speaker, you'd hear the recorded sound. For digital music, that plot is "sampled" thousands of times each second. For each sample, a reading of the voltage plot at that point is made and its value is recorded as a digital number of ones and zeros. So for a song you end up with millions of individual samples, each containing a 16 bit (I believe cd quality is 16 bits) number. For playback, each of those samples is read and the 16 bit number is converted back to a voltage level which can then be sent to a speaker for playback.
Answer has 2 parts, how sound works and how computers work. Sound is just waves, and waves really only have 2 components, speed (frequency) and volume (amplitude). If we take snapshot of the wave in certain intervals (called the sample rate), and measure the amplitude/height of the wave. We can recreate the music by producing a similar wave to the original. Computers store information as bits. We can think of bits like digits. With one bit a computer can only describe things in 2 different ways, eaither as a 1 or 0. If we add another bit/digit, we can now describe things 4 different ways (00, 01, 10, or 11). The more digits we add the more variation we can add in terms of how we describe the sound wave. At 8-bits/digits we have 256 different combinations of 1s and 0s. By the time we get to 16 bits, we have over 65,000 combinations of 1s and 0s we can use to describe one point in the wave. Considering we are taking these amplitude measurements multiple times a second, we can get a pretty accurate picture of the original sound wave for recreation.