Suggestions For Discovering The Right Audio Amplifier

If you have paid a good amount of money on a pair of good-quality speakers, you want to be confident that you get an audio amplifier that will deliver superb sound quality while meeting your budget. I will provide a few pointers on the subject of audio amplifier products to help you make the correct buying decision.

It is difficult to pick the best audio amp because of the large number of types. All of these types have different specs. They are built on different technologies and come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. By following some easy guidelines, you will be able to pick the model that best fits your application and budget.

A important criterion is the size of the amplifier. You can get models which can fill half a room. In contrast, a number of of the most recent miniature amplifier models are no larger than a deck of cards. Various amplifiers are rack sized. This allows them to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.

There are some core amplifier technologies available. One technology is known as "solid-state". Solid-state amplifiers now account for the majority of audio amps. In the past, tube amplifiers have been popular. Even today tube amplifiers are still available. Tube amps, though, have a rather large amount of harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion describes how much the audio signal is degraded while being amplified. This expression is frequently used while comparing the audio quality of amplifiers.

An audio distortion of up to 10% is usual for tube amplifiers whereas solid-state amps have less audio distortion depending on the particular technology. The most conventional amplifiers employ a "Class-A" and "Class-AB" technology. These amplifiers are also labeled "analog amplifiers". Audio amplifiers which are based on these technologies normally have low harmonic distortion. Also, this technology is quite economical. Though, the downside is that the power efficiency is only in the order of 20% to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is actually used to amplify the signal. The remaining part is wasted as heat. An amplifier with low power efficiency will radiate the majority of its power as heat.

Another technology is called "Class-D". This technology provides much higher power efficiency than analog amplifiers, normally around 80 to 90%. "Class-D" amplifiers are also referred to as "digital amplifiers". The downside is that many digital amplifiers have higher audio distortion than analog amplifiers although a few of the most recent types utilize a feedback mechanism to minimize distortion to levels of 0.05% and lower.

The amp should be capable to offer adequate output power to sufficiently drive your loudspeakers which will depend not only on how much power your speakers can handle but also on the size of your listening environment. There are two values for speaker power handling: peak and average power handling. The peak value indicates how much power the loudspeaker can tolerate for small periods of time. The average value on the other hand denotes how much power the loudspeaker can handle constantly without damage.

If you have a rather small listening environment then 20 to 50 Watts of power should be plenty even though your speaker may be rated for 100 Watts or more. Loudspeakers though 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 speakers. Not all amps can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your speaker which is given in Ohms. Then take a look at your amplifier manual to guarantee that your amp can drive this impedance.

Two additional significant parameters to look at when picking an amplifier are signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response. Signal-to-noise ratio denotes how much noise the amp will generate and should be no less than 100 dB for a high-quality amplifier. The frequency response indicates which audio frequency range the amplifier covers and should be no less than 20 Hz to 20 kHz.