Saturday, March 22, 2014

Hints For Purchasing Stereo Amplifiers

By Marta McBrian


When purchasing a brand new amp, you almost certainly are going to take a look at the technical specifications. One often found parameter is the frequency response. This parameter although important isn't going to tell the full story with regards to how well the amplifier is going to sound. In order to help you make a smarter buying decision, I'll make clear what this spec means and the way to understand it. This ideally is going to ensure you'll get the ideal amp for your task. An amp is able to only work inside of a specific frequency range. Any signals outside of this range will be eliminated. Because of this the frequency response offers a crucial hint about if a specific amp might be appropriate for a specific application. This range is specified by listing 2 frequencies: a lower and also upper frequency. For example, the lower frequency could be 20 Hz and the higher frequency 20 kHz. Using this spec it seems like the amplifier would be able to function as a HIFI amplifier. You could possibly be lured to decide on an amplifier that gives the largest frequency response. However, there is much more to knowing an amplifier's functionality than just realizing this simple range.

An amplifier will amplify a sound signal which is inside the frequency response range. This range is specified by listing two frequencies: a lower and also upper frequency. As an example, the lower frequency might be 20 Hz and the higher frequency 20 kHz. From this spec it seems the amp would be able to work as a HIFI amplifier. You may very well be lured to choose an amplifier which provides the greatest frequency response. Then again, there is certainly much more to knowing an amplifier's overall performance than only realizing this simple range. It seems like there are many different techniques which producers employ when specifying the frequency response. The normal convention is to present the frequency range within which the amplification will decrease a maximum of 3 dB from the nominal gain.

On the other hand, the frequency response quite often is utilized in order to deceive customers by means of stretching the frequency range far beyond the range in which the amp still operates properly and in addition hides the fact that the amplifier isn't linear. Preferably you ought to attempt to obtain a frequency response diagram from the manufacturer. In this chart, you'll find how the amp functions inside the frequency response range. It's also possible to spot any peaks along with valleys the amp might have. Peaks along with valleys leads to colorization of the music. Preferably the amp needs to have a constant amplification within the whole frequency response with the exception of the drop off at the lower and upper limit. Aside from the frequency response, a phase response diagram may also tell a good deal in regards to the overall performance and sound quality of the amp. You additionally may need to look at the circumstances under which the frequency response was calculated. You normally will not find any kind of details about the measurement conditions, however, in the maker's data sheet. One condition that may impact the frequency response is the impedance of the loudspeaker attached to the amp. Normal loudspeaker impedances vary from 2 to 16 Ohms. The lower the speaker impedance the higher the strain for the amplifier.

Generally current digital or "Class-D" amps will show changes in the frequency response with different loads. The reason is the fact that Class-D amplifiers employ switching FETs as the power stage that create a lot of switching components. These components are eliminated using a filter which is part of the amplifier. The lowpass filter characteristic, on the other hand, greatly depends on the connected load.

This change is most noticeable with many digital amps, referred to as Class-D amps. Class-D amplifiers employ a lowpass filter in their output to suppress the switching components which are generated through the internal power FETs. A changing speaker load is going to affect the filter response to some amount. Commonly the lower the loudspeaker impedance the lower the maximum frequency of the amplifier. In addition, the linearity of the amplifier gain is going to be determined by the load. A number of amplifiers include feedback to compensate for changes in gain due to different attached loads. An additional strategy is to provide dedicated outputs for different speaker impedances that are attached to the amplifier power stage by using audio transformers.




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