Monday, April 7, 2014

Some Unknown Facts About Modern Power Amplifiers

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By Marta McBrian


The frequency response is just about the most often found parameter to define audio amplifiers. Even so, it can often be misleading and might not always provide a good indication of the sound quality. You might not completely understand exactly how the frequency response is determined. I will explain what exactly this particular term means. Hopefully you will be able to make a more educated purchasing decision.

An amp will amplify an audio signal that is inside the frequency response range. If the frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz as an example, the amp can amplify any signals with a frequency higher than 20 Hz and lower than 20 kHz. Then again, there is certainly a lot more to comprehending the amplifier's overall performance than just considering these numbers.

Yet, several producers dismiss this particular convention. They push the lower frequency and higher frequency to where the amp barely provides any kind of gain. On top of that, these numbers say practically nothing about precisely how linear the amp is functioning within this range. Hence it is better to possess a complete frequency response graph. This type of chart is going to reveal whether or not there are any sort of substantial peaks or valleys within the operating frequency range. Peaks along with valleys can lead to colorization of the audio. Ideally the amplifier needs to have a constant gain within the whole frequency response excluding the drop off at the lower and upper limit. Apart from the frequency response, a phase response diagram will also tell a whole lot about the performance and quality of sound of the amplifier. The conditions under which the frequency response was calculated are also necessary to fully understand. One condition which might impact the frequency response is the impedance of the speaker connected to the amp. Normal loudspeaker impedances range from 2 to 16 Ohms. The lower the loudspeaker impedance the greater the burden for the amplifier.

The conditions under which the frequency response was determined are also essential to understand. Actually amps might have different frequency responses depending on the loudspeaker which is connected.

Several amplifier topologies provide a method to compensate for changes in the amplifier gain with different speaker loads. One of these techniques uses feedback. The amplifier output signal after the interior lowpass is input to the amplifier input for comparison. If not created correctly, this technique may cause instability of the amp however. One more technique uses audio transformers between the power stage of the amplifier and various outputs. Each output was designed to connect a different speaker load. This approach ensures that the amplifier will be loaded equally and in addition enhances amplifier efficiency.




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