None of latest music systems would be possible lacking the aid of today's stereo amps which attempt to satisfy higher and higher demands regarding power and audio fidelity. There is a huge amount of amp designs and types. All of these differ in terms of performance. I will describe a few of the most widespread amplifier terms including "class-A", "class-D" and "t amps" to help you figure out which of these amps is best for your application. In addition, after understanding this essay you should be able to comprehend the amplifier specs which makers show. An audio amplifier will translate a low-level music signal which frequently comes from a high-impedance source into a high-level signal which can drive a speaker with a low impedance. Determined by the type of amp, one of several kinds of elements are used to amplify the signal like tubes as well as transistors.
Simply put, the principle of an audio amp is to translate a low-power audio signal into a high-power audio signal. The high-power signal is big enough to drive a loudspeaker sufficiently loud. The type of element utilized to amplify the signal depends on what amplifier architecture is used. A few amps even make use of several types of elements. Usually the following parts are utilized: tubes, bipolar transistors as well as FETs.
One disadvantage of tube amplifiers is their small power efficiency. In other words, most of the energy consumed by the amp is wasted as heat as opposed to being converted into audio. Therefore tube amplifiers are going to run hot and require sufficient cooling. Furthermore, tubes are rather expensive to produce. Therefore tube amps have by and large been replaced by solid-state amps which I am going to look at next.
Solid-state amps use a semiconductor element, such as a bipolar transistor or FET rather than the tube and the first type is called "class-A" amps. The working principle of class-A amplifiers is very similar to that of tube amps. The primary difference is that a transistor is being utilized in place of the tube for amplifying the music signal. The amplified high-level signal is sometimes fed back in order to reduce harmonic distortion. If you need an ultra-low distortion amp then you might wish to explore class-A amps since they provide amongst the smallest distortion of any audio amps. However, similar to tube amps, class-A amplifiers have very small power efficiency and most of the power is wasted.
In order to improve on the low efficiency of class-A amps, class-AB amplifiers utilize a number of transistors that each amplify a distinct area, each of which being more efficient than class-A amplifiers. The larger efficiency of class-AB amps also has two further benefits. Firstly, the necessary number of heat sinking is reduced. Consequently class-AB amplifiers can be manufactured lighter and smaller. For that reason, class-AB amps can be made cheaper than class-A amplifiers. Class-AB amplifiers have a downside however. Each time the amplified signal transitions from one region to the other, there will be some distortion produced. In other words the transition between these 2 areas is non-linear in nature. As a result class-AB amps lack audio fidelity compared with class-A amplifiers.
Class-D amps improve on the efficiency of class-AB amps even further by utilizing a switching transistor that is constantly being switched on or off. Thus this switching stage hardly dissipates any energy and consequently the power efficiency of class-D amps usually surpasses 90%. The switching transistor is being controlled by a pulse-width modulator. The switched large-level signal has to be lowpass filtered in order to remove the switching signal and get back the audio signal. The switching transistor and in addition the pulse-width modulator typically exhibit quite big non-linearities. As a consequence, the amplified signal is going to contain some distortion. Class-D amps by nature exhibit higher audio distortion than other kinds of audio amplifiers.
New amplifiers include internal audio feedback to minimize the amount of music distortion. One type of audio amps that makes use of this type of feedback is known as "class-T" or "t amp". Class-T amplifiers feed back the high-level switching signal to the audio signal processor for comparison. These amps exhibit small audio distortion and can be made extremely small.
Simply put, the principle of an audio amp is to translate a low-power audio signal into a high-power audio signal. The high-power signal is big enough to drive a loudspeaker sufficiently loud. The type of element utilized to amplify the signal depends on what amplifier architecture is used. A few amps even make use of several types of elements. Usually the following parts are utilized: tubes, bipolar transistors as well as FETs.
One disadvantage of tube amplifiers is their small power efficiency. In other words, most of the energy consumed by the amp is wasted as heat as opposed to being converted into audio. Therefore tube amplifiers are going to run hot and require sufficient cooling. Furthermore, tubes are rather expensive to produce. Therefore tube amps have by and large been replaced by solid-state amps which I am going to look at next.
Solid-state amps use a semiconductor element, such as a bipolar transistor or FET rather than the tube and the first type is called "class-A" amps. The working principle of class-A amplifiers is very similar to that of tube amps. The primary difference is that a transistor is being utilized in place of the tube for amplifying the music signal. The amplified high-level signal is sometimes fed back in order to reduce harmonic distortion. If you need an ultra-low distortion amp then you might wish to explore class-A amps since they provide amongst the smallest distortion of any audio amps. However, similar to tube amps, class-A amplifiers have very small power efficiency and most of the power is wasted.
In order to improve on the low efficiency of class-A amps, class-AB amplifiers utilize a number of transistors that each amplify a distinct area, each of which being more efficient than class-A amplifiers. The larger efficiency of class-AB amps also has two further benefits. Firstly, the necessary number of heat sinking is reduced. Consequently class-AB amplifiers can be manufactured lighter and smaller. For that reason, class-AB amps can be made cheaper than class-A amplifiers. Class-AB amplifiers have a downside however. Each time the amplified signal transitions from one region to the other, there will be some distortion produced. In other words the transition between these 2 areas is non-linear in nature. As a result class-AB amps lack audio fidelity compared with class-A amplifiers.
Class-D amps improve on the efficiency of class-AB amps even further by utilizing a switching transistor that is constantly being switched on or off. Thus this switching stage hardly dissipates any energy and consequently the power efficiency of class-D amps usually surpasses 90%. The switching transistor is being controlled by a pulse-width modulator. The switched large-level signal has to be lowpass filtered in order to remove the switching signal and get back the audio signal. The switching transistor and in addition the pulse-width modulator typically exhibit quite big non-linearities. As a consequence, the amplified signal is going to contain some distortion. Class-D amps by nature exhibit higher audio distortion than other kinds of audio amplifiers.
New amplifiers include internal audio feedback to minimize the amount of music distortion. One type of audio amps that makes use of this type of feedback is known as "class-T" or "t amp". Class-T amplifiers feed back the high-level switching signal to the audio signal processor for comparison. These amps exhibit small audio distortion and can be made extremely small.
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