Do Not Be Mislead By The Manufacturer Specifications Of Modern Audio Amps

By Marta McBrian


Power amplifier producers normally publish the frequency response of their products which, however, won't always tell you a lot concerning the quality of sound. I am going to describe the meaning of this phrase and even offer a few recommendations on how to interpret it whilst searching for an amplifier.

An amplifier is made to enlarge an audio signal enough in order to drive some audio speakers to moderate or high sound level. Suppliers generally publish the frequency range over which the amp operates. If the frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz for instance, the amp can amplify all signals with a frequency higher than 20 Hz and less than 20 kHz. You may be thinking the greater the frequency response the better the amp. That, on the other hand, might not always be. You ought to look at the specifications much more closely to properly understand these.

On the other hand, various producers push this standard to the limit and may list a maximum frequency where the amp is going to hardly produce a signal any more. Additionally, simply looking at these 2 figures isn't going to say much about the linearity of the frequency response. A complete frequency response chart, on the other hand, will demonstrate whether there are any kind of peaks and valleys and in addition show the way the frequency response is to be understood. Peaks and also valleys could cause colorization of the audio. Preferably the gain of the amp ought to be linear throughout the entire working range. In order to better comprehend the frequency response behavior of a certain model, you should make an effort to figure out under which conditions the response was measured. You may find this info in the data sheet of the amplifier. Then again, most producers are not going to show those in which case you ought to contact the maker directly. One condition which may effect the frequency response is the impedance of the speaker connected to the amp. Normal loudspeaker impedances vary from 2 to 16 Ohms. The lower the loudspeaker impedance the higher the load for the amplifier.

This change is most detectable with a lot of digital amps, often known as Class-D amps. Class-D amplifiers use a lowpass filter within their output to be able to suppress the switching components that are generated through the internal power FETs. A changing speaker load is going to impact the filter response to some degree. Normally the lower the loudspeaker impedance the lower the highest frequency of the amplifier. Moreover, the linearity of the amplifier gain is going to depend on the load.

A few of the newest digital amps feed back the audio signal after the lowpass filter in order to compensate for this drawback and also to make the frequency response of the amplifier independent of the attached load. On the other hand, if the amplifier is not constructed properly, this sort of feedback may cause instability and bring about loud noise being created by the amp if certain speakers are attached. Different amps employ transformers and provide outputs for different loudspeaker loads. Apart from improving upon the frequency response of the amplifier, this method usually also improves the amplifier efficiency.




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