None of latest stereo products would be feasible lacking the help of latest small stereo amps which strive to satisfy higher and higher requirements regarding power and audio fidelity. It is tough to choose an amp given the big number of models and concepts. I am going to clarify a few of the most popular amp designs like “tube amps”, “linear amps”, “class-AB” and “class-D” in addition to “class-T amplifiers” to help you comprehend some of the terms regularly utilized by amp makers. This guide should also help you figure out what topology is perfect for your particular application.
Simply put, the function of an audio amp is to convert a low-power music signal into a high-power music signal. The high-power signal is big enough to drive a speaker sufficiently loud. The sort of element utilized to amplify the signal is dependent on which amplifier architecture is used. A few amplifiers even employ several kinds of elements. Normally the following parts are utilized: tubes, bipolar transistors plus FETs.
Several decades ago, the most common type of audio amp were tube amplifiers. Tube amplifiers employ a tube as the amplifying element. The current flow through the tube is controlled by a low-level control signal. Thereby the low-level audio is converted into a high-level signal. Regrettably, tube amps have a reasonably high amount of distortion. Technically speaking, tube amps are going to introduce higher harmonics into the signal. A lot of people favor tube amplifiers since these higher harmonics are frequently perceived as the tube amplifier sounding “warm” or “pleasant”. Another disadvantage of tube amps, though, is the low power efficiency. The majority of power which tube amps use up is being dissipated as heat and merely a fraction is being converted into audio power. Tube amps, however, a fairly expensive to make and therefore tube amplifiers have by and large been replaced with amplifiers employing transistor elements which are less expensive to build.
Solid state amps replace the tube with semiconductor elements, generally bipolar transistors or FETs. The first type of solid-state amplifiers is generally known as class-A amps. In a class-A amp, the signal is being amplified by a transistor which is controlled by the low-level audio signal. If you need an ultra-low distortion amp then you might wish to investigate class-A amplifiers since they provide amongst the smallest distortion of any audio amps. Class-A amplifiers, on the other hand, waste the majority of the power as heat. Therefore they typically have large heat sinks and are quite bulky.
By making use of a number of transistors, class-AB amplifiers improve on the low power efficiency of class-A amps. The operating area is divided into two distinct regions. These two areas are handled by separate transistors. Each of these transistors works more efficiently than the single transistor in a class-A amp. As a result of the larger efficiency, class-AB amplifiers do not require the same amount of heat sinks as class-A amps. Therefore they can be manufactured lighter and less costly. However, this architecture adds some non-linearity or distortion in the area where the signal switches between those areas. As such class-AB amplifiers generally have larger distortion than class-A amps. Class-D amplifiers are able to achieve power efficiencies above 90% by utilizing a switching transistor which is continuously being switched on and off and as a result the transistor itself does not dissipate any heat. The switching transistor, which is being controlled by a pulse-width modulator generates a high-frequency switching component that needs to be removed from the amplified signal by making use of a lowpass filter. The switching transistor and in addition the pulse-width modulator usually exhibit rather big non-linearities. As a result, the amplified signal will have some distortion. Class-D amps by nature exhibit higher audio distortion than other types of audio amps.
To solve the dilemma of high music distortion, modern switching amplifier styles include feedback. The amplified signal is compared with the original low-level signal and errors are corrected. A well-known topology that uses this sort of feedback is generally known as “class-T”. Class-T amps or “t amps” attain audio distortion which compares with the audio distortion of class-A amps while at the same time exhibiting the power efficiency of class-D amplifiers. Consequently t amps can be made extremely small and yet attain high audio fidelity.
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