12.12.13

How To Get Good-Quality Audio Amps

By Mike Heller


Selecting a high-quality amplifier for your loudspeakers is not a trivial job. You want to ensure that your amplifier matches your loudspeakers. I will explain some main amplifier language and give some pointers to assist you pick the right amplifier.

A vital criterion is the size of the amplifier. You can get models which can fill half a room. In contrast, a few of the latest miniature amp types are no bigger than a deck of cards. A large number of amps are the size of a typical rack. This enables your amp to be stacked on top of your other audio devices.

The most apparent parameter is the size of the amp. There are models that are as large as half your living room whilst several of the newest mini amplifier models are as tiny as a bar of soap. A lot of amplifiers are rack sized. This allows them to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.

Harmonic distortion of tube amplifiers is often as high as 10%. Solid-state amps will have lower audio distortion. On the other hand, distortion will depend on the particular audio amplifier technology. The most conventional amps employ a "Class-A" and "Class-AB" technology. These amplifiers are also labeled "analog amplifiers". While amps employing these technologies normally have low audio distortion, power efficiency is merely 10% to 30%. Power efficiency describes how much of the electrical power is utilized to amplify the audio as opposed to being wasted as heat. Amps with low power efficiency will need rather big heat sinks because the majority of the power is radiated.

An audio distortion of up to 10% is usual for tube amps whereas solid-state amps have less audio distortion depending on the particular technology. The most conventional amplifiers utilize a "Class-A" and "Class-AB" technology. These amplifiers are also named "analog amplifiers". This technology offers fairly small audio distortion. Though, the power efficiency is only 10 to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is actually used to amplify the signal. The remaining portion is wasted as heat. An amp with low power efficiency will radiate most of its power as heat.

The amplifier should be able to offer enough output power to sufficiently drive your speakers which will depend not only on how much power your speakers can tolerate but also on the size of your listening environment. Speaker power handling is given as peak power which denotes the greatest amount of power during short bursts while average power refers to how much power the speakers can handle continuously.

If your listening area is rather small then you may not need to drive your loudspeaker to its rated power handling value. You would most likely be ok having an amplifier that can deliver 20 to 50 Watts even though your speakers might be able to tolerate 100 Watts of power. Speakers though differ in their impedance and sensitivity. As a rule of thumb loudspeakers with low impedance offer higher sensitivity. High-sensitivity speakers are less difficult to drive to high volume than low-sensitivity loudspeakers. Not all amps can drive any speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your loudspeaker which is given in Ohms. Then look at your amplifier manual to guarantee that your amplifier can drive this impedance.

Additional significant parameters are the signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response which should be in the order of at the least 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio and 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response for high-quality amplifiers.




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