Picking a good amplifier for your loudspeakers is not a trivial job. You want to ensure that your amp matches your loudspeakers. I will describe some important amplifier vocabulary and give some advice to aid you select the perfect amplifier.
Amplifiers differ in their size and range from types that will take up a good part of your living room whereas a few of the most recent mini amplifier types are as small as a deck of cards. A large number of amplifiers are the size of a typical rack. This allows your amplifier to be stacked on top of your other audio devices.
There are a number of core amplifier technologies available. One technology is called "solid-state". Solid-state amps now make up for the greater part of audio amplifiers. In the past, tube amps have been popular. Even today tube amplifiers are still available. However, tube amps have rather high audio distortion. Audio distortion refers to how much the audio signal is being degraded whilst passing through the amplifier and is specified in percent. This value is frequently used when comparing the audio quality of amplifiers.
Harmonic distortion of tube amps is frequently as large as 10%. Solid-state amps will have lower audio distortion. On the other hand, distortion will depend on the particular audio amplifier technology. In the past, typically "Class-A" and "Class-AB" amps were available which are also referred to as "analog amplifiers". This technology provides fairly low audio distortion. On the other hand, the power efficiency is only 10 to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is actually utilized to amplify the signal. The left over portion is wasted as heat. An amplifier with low power efficiency will radiate the majority of its power as heat.
In contrast, "Class-D" amplifiers which are also called "digital amplifiers" offer a power efficiency of generally 80 to 90%. This permits the amp and power supply to be made much smaller than analog amplifiers. The disadvantage is that digital amps often have higher audio distortion than analog amps. This is mostly a consequence of the switching distortion of the output power stage. Latest digital audio amplifiers, however, employ a feedback mechanism and can reduce the audio distortion to below 0.05%.
Your amplifier should deliver adequate power to drive your speakers. The amount of power will depend on the power handling rating of your speakers. One more parameter is the size of your space. Loudspeaker power handling capability is specified as peak power and average power. The peak power value refers to how much power the speaker can handle for a short period of time while the average power handling value denotes how much power you can drive the speaker at constantly without damage.
In a small listening area, you may not need to drive your speakers to their rated value. 20 to 40 Watts of power will most likely be sufficient. Speakers on the other hand differ in their impedance and sensitivity. As a rule of thumb speakers with low impedance offer higher sensitivity. High-sensitivity speakers are easier to drive to high volume than low-sensitivity speakers. Not all amplifiers can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your speaker which is given in Ohms. Then look at your amplifier manual to guarantee that your amplifier can drive this impedance.
Additional key parameters are the signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response which should be in the order of at least 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio and 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response for high-quality amplifiers.
Amplifiers differ in their size and range from types that will take up a good part of your living room whereas a few of the most recent mini amplifier types are as small as a deck of cards. A large number of amplifiers are the size of a typical rack. This allows your amplifier to be stacked on top of your other audio devices.
There are a number of core amplifier technologies available. One technology is called "solid-state". Solid-state amps now make up for the greater part of audio amplifiers. In the past, tube amps have been popular. Even today tube amplifiers are still available. However, tube amps have rather high audio distortion. Audio distortion refers to how much the audio signal is being degraded whilst passing through the amplifier and is specified in percent. This value is frequently used when comparing the audio quality of amplifiers.
Harmonic distortion of tube amps is frequently as large as 10%. Solid-state amps will have lower audio distortion. On the other hand, distortion will depend on the particular audio amplifier technology. In the past, typically "Class-A" and "Class-AB" amps were available which are also referred to as "analog amplifiers". This technology provides fairly low audio distortion. On the other hand, the power efficiency is only 10 to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is actually utilized to amplify the signal. The left over portion is wasted as heat. An amplifier with low power efficiency will radiate the majority of its power as heat.
In contrast, "Class-D" amplifiers which are also called "digital amplifiers" offer a power efficiency of generally 80 to 90%. This permits the amp and power supply to be made much smaller than analog amplifiers. The disadvantage is that digital amps often have higher audio distortion than analog amps. This is mostly a consequence of the switching distortion of the output power stage. Latest digital audio amplifiers, however, employ a feedback mechanism and can reduce the audio distortion to below 0.05%.
Your amplifier should deliver adequate power to drive your speakers. The amount of power will depend on the power handling rating of your speakers. One more parameter is the size of your space. Loudspeaker power handling capability is specified as peak power and average power. The peak power value refers to how much power the speaker can handle for a short period of time while the average power handling value denotes how much power you can drive the speaker at constantly without damage.
In a small listening area, you may not need to drive your speakers to their rated value. 20 to 40 Watts of power will most likely be sufficient. Speakers on the other hand differ in their impedance and sensitivity. As a rule of thumb speakers with low impedance offer higher sensitivity. High-sensitivity speakers are easier to drive to high volume than low-sensitivity speakers. Not all amplifiers can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your speaker which is given in Ohms. Then look at your amplifier manual to guarantee that your amplifier can drive this impedance.
Additional key parameters are the signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response which should be in the order of at least 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio and 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response for high-quality amplifiers.
0 comments:
Post a Comment