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Recommendations For Finding The Perfect Audio Amplifier
Picking a superior audio amplifier for your speakers is not a trivial task. You wish to make sure that your amp matches your speakers. I will explain some fundamental amplifier terms and give some pointers to aid you pick the right amplifier.
It is hard to select the right audio amplifier as a result of the large quantity of types. All of these models have different specs. They are based on different technologies and are available in all kinds of shapes and sizes. By following some easy guidelines, you will be able to pick the type that best meets your application and budget.
One important criterion is the size of the amplifier. You can get models that can fill half a room. In contrast, a few of the most recent miniature amp types are no bigger than a deck of cards. A large number of amps are the size of a typical rack. This permits your amp to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.
There are a number of core amplifier technologies available. One technology is labeled “solid-state”. Solid-state amplifiers now account for the bulk of audio amplifiers. In the past, tube amplifiers have been popular. Even today tube amplifiers are still obtainable. However, tube amplifiers have fairly high audio distortion. Audio distortion refers to how much the audio signal is being degraded whilst passing through the amp and is given in percent. This value is often used when comparing the audio quality of amplifiers.
An audio distortion of up to 10% is typical for tube amps whereas solid-state amps have less audio distortion depending on the particular technology. The most conventional amplifiers employ 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%. This means that most of the electrical power supplied to the amp is wasted as heat whereas a small fraction is utilized to amplify the audio signal.
Another technology is named “Class-D”. This technology offers far greater power efficiency than analog amplifiers, generally around 80 to 90%. “Class-D” amplifiers are also called “digital amplifiers”. The downside is that many digital amplifiers have higher audio distortion than analog amplifiers though a few of the most recent types employ a feedback mechanism to minimize distortion to levels of 0.05% and less.
When choosing an amplifier, make certain that the output power is sufficient to drive your speakers. The required power will be determined by how much power your loudspeakers can tolerate as well as the size of your room where you will be listening. There are two values for speaker power handling: peak and average power handling. The peak value shows how much power the speaker can tolerate for short periods of time. The average value on the other hand describes how much power the speaker can tolerate constantly without damage.
If your listening area is fairly small then you may not require to drive your speaker to its rated power handling value. You would most likely be good having an amplifier that can deliver 20 to 50 Watts even though your speakers might be capable to tolerate 100 Watts of power. Notice though that loudspeakers differ in their sensitivity. Typically a low-impedance loudspeaker will be simpler to drive to high volume than a high-impedance speaker. Be sure that your amp can drive your speaker impedance. You can without difficulty find the rated speaker impedance range in your amplifier’s user manual.
Two additional essential parameters to look at when choosing an amp are signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response. Signal-to-noise ratio describes how much noise the amplifier will generate and should be no less than 100 dB for a high-quality amplifier. The frequency response shows which audio frequency range the amplifier covers and should be at least 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
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