A Look at Analog Filters

There are a grand amount of different kinds of filters that have been developed throughout the years. Even though there are a lot of different filters, they all have common characteristics. These are in regards to several different points, they seem to carry through similarities. We'll look at these similarities in analog filters, electronic and digital filters, in a topical basic manner. If you aren't familiar with filters, consider that all communication in the modern era can not be possible without filters combing voice to sound and removing noise.

Filters in general are circuits that signal processing functions and remove unwanted frequency components from the signal. They have been touted as the building blocks of signal processing and are used in electronics often. There are many applications that occur with these filters and the key ones are the separation of audio signals such as bass, mid-range, and tweeter loudspeakers. This is sometimes most often heard in the separation of multiple telephone conversations into one channel.

Another key example when discussing these items, is to look at a radio station or signal. In a radio receiver when selecting a station the filter inside the box allows a rejection of other signals and for the listener to tune into one solid frequency, even though there are many out there. If this filter did not exist, the radio as you may have remembered it may not have existed. If a receiver were unable to block out other signals and hone in on a specific one-line channel, the user would not hear anything but noise.

Analog filters are not the ends all; there are digital filters in our modern age as well. In regards to digital filters vs analog filters, the different lies in the way the systems perform. A digital filter is simply a system that performs mathematical operations on a discrete-time signal and reduces or enhances aspects of the signal. An analog signal can be sent and filtered through a digital filter and reconstructed into a new analog signal using a mathematical formula. However, this is all done in number sequences, while analog filters directly manipulate the circuitry, without number manipulation like digital filters do.

A digital filter can have analog to digital converter, alongside a microprocessor running software that performs the functions of the manipulative mathematical number systems. While digital filters are sometimes superior to analog filters they are more expensive than the equivalent analog filter due to the complexity of the filter. However, digital filters have a latency in regards to the response time from input and response which is not a problem with its analog counterpart.

Filters, both analog, digital and electronic can be complicated. However, without these filters you could not use radios, cellphones, or even stereo receivers. These communication devices rely completely on these filters to make sure that voice over signal is possible. Analog filters were once the standard, but digital filters seem to have surpassed them in everyday life, without even alarming the general public.


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