If you have spent a good amount of cash on a pair of good-quality speakers, you want to be certain that you get an audio amplifier that will provide excellent sound quality while meeting your budget. I will give some pointers on the subject of audio amp products to assist you make the perfect purchasing decision.
Audio amplifiers come in all different shapes and sizes. They employ different technologies and have many technical specs. By following some straightforward guidelines, you will be able to pick the model that best fits your application and resources.
The most evident parameter is the size of the amplifier. There are models that are as big as half your living room while a number of of the latest mini amplifier types are as tiny as a bar of soap. Various amplifiers are rack sized. This allows them to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.
There are various core amplifier technologies available. One technology is named “solid-state”. Solid-state amplifiers now make up for the majority of audio amplifiers. In the past, tube amps have been popular. Even today tube amplifiers are still available. Tube amplifiers, on the other hand, have a fairly high amount of harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion refers to how much the audio signal is degraded while being amplified. This expression is often used while comparing the audio quality of amps.
An audio distortion of up to 10% is normal for tube amps whereas solid-state amps have lower audio distortion depending on the specific technology. In the past, mostly “Class-A” and “Class-AB” amps were obtainable which are also called “analog amplifiers”. While amplifiers utilizing these technologies generally have low audio distortion, power efficiency is only 10% to 30%. This means that the majority of the electrical power supplied to the amp is wasted as heat whereas a small fraction is utilized to amplify the audio signal.
“Class-D” amplifiers, on the other hand, which are also referred to as “digital amplifiers” have a power efficiency of at the least 80% and are smaller and have a smaller power supply than comparable analog amplifiers. The disadvantage is that digital amps regularly have higher audio distortion than analog amplifiers. This is mostly a result of the switching distortion of the output power stage. Latest digital audio amplifiers, on the other hand, make use of a feedback mechanism and can minimize the audio distortion to below 0.05%.
When picking an amp, make certain that the output power is sufficient to drive your loudspeakers. The required power will be determined by how much power your speakers can tolerate as well as the size of your room where you will be listening. There are two values for speaker power handling: peak and average power handling. The peak value shows how much power the speaker can tolerate for short periods of time. The average value on the other hand describes how much power the loudspeaker can handle constantly without damage.
If your listening area is rather small then you may not need to drive your loudspeaker to its rated power handling value. You would probably be good having an amp that can offer 20 to 50 Watts despite the fact that your speakers might be able to tolerate 100 Watts of power. Low-impedance speakers normally offer high sensitivity and are easier to drive to high volume than high-impedance loudspeakers. Not all amplifiers can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your loudspeaker which is given in Ohms. Then look at your amplifier manual to ensure that your amp can drive this impedance.
Last but not least, be certain that your amp introduces little noise and has a broad enough frequency response. High-quality amplifiers will have a signal-to-noise ratio of at the very least 100 dB and a frequency response of a minimum of 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
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