I will take a look at some audio amplifiers as well as mini amplifier models and clarify some fundamental vocabulary to help you choose the ideal amplifier for your loudspeakers
Audio amps are available in all different shapes and sizes. They utilize different technologies and have numerous technical specs. By following some simple rules, you will be able to select the model that best fits your application and resources.
Amplifiers vary in their size and range from models that will take up a good portion of your living room while a number of of the most recent mini amplifier types are as tiny as a deck of cards. Various amplifiers are rack sized. This permits them to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.
The vast majority of today’s audio amps are solid state amplifiers vs more traditional tube amplifiers. Tube amps have been dominant a decade or so ago. Unfortunately, tube amps have fairly high audio distortion which describes how much the audio signal is degraded by the amplifier.
Harmonic distortion of tube amps is frequently as high as 10%. Solid-state amplifiers will have less audio distortion. However, distortion will depend on the specific audio amplifier technology. In the past, typically “Class-A” and “Class-AB” amps were available which are also known as “analog amplifiers”. While amps using these technologies generally have low audio distortion, power efficiency is only 10% to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is in fact used to amplify the signal. The remaining portion is wasted as heat. An amplifier with low power efficiency will radiate the majority of its power as heat.
“Class-D” amplifiers, on the other hand, which are also called “digital amplifiers” have a power efficiency of at least 80% and are smaller and have a smaller power supply than comparable analog amplifiers. Because of the switching output stage, digital amps generally have higher harmonic distortion than analog amplifiers. On the other hand, a few of the most recent types are capable to lower distortion to 0.05% and lower by using a feedback mechanism.
Your amplifier should deliver enough power to drive your speakers. The amount of power will depend on the power handling rating of your speakers. An additional factor is the size of your room. Loudspeaker 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 tolerate continuously.
In a small listening environment, you may not need to drive your loudspeakers to their rated value. 20 to 40 Watts of power will most likely be plenty. Loudspeakers however 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 loudspeakers. Not all amps can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your loudspeaker which is given in Ohms. Then take a look at your amplifier manual to make certain that your amplifier can drive this impedance.
Additional essential 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 amps.
Tags: audio amplifier, hifi amplifier, power amplifier, stereo amplifier