Sabtu, 08 Maret 2014

Do Not Be Mislead By The Manufacturer Specs Of Recent Power Amplifiers

By Marta McBrian


The frequency response is by far the most frequently found parameter to define audio amps. Even so, it can often be confusing and may possibly not provide a good indication of the sound quality. You might not understand fully just how the frequency response is measured. Let me discuss what precisely this phrase means. I hope you will be able to make a more well informed buying decision. An amp is built to enlarge a sound signal enough in order to drive a set of audio speakers to medium or higher volume. Makers typically present the frequency range over which the amp functions. This range is specified by listing two frequencies: a lower and also upper frequency. For instance, the lower frequency could be 20 Hz and the upper frequency 20 kHz. From this spec it seems like the amp could function as a HIFI amp. It may seem the larger the frequency response the better the amp. That, however, may well not necessarily be. You ought to go through the specs more closely so that you can adequately interpret these.

The reality is, an amp with a frequency response from 10 Hz to 30 kHz can actually have much lesser sound quality than an amp which offers a frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz. Different manufacturers apparently employ different ways to define frequency response. Generally, the frequency response displays the standard operating range of the amplifier. Inside this range, the amp gain is essentially constant. At the lower and upper cutoff frequencies the gain is going to decrease by at most 3 decibels.

Then again, a few suppliers push this standard to the limit and will list a maximum frequency where the amp is going to barely produce a signal any longer. Additionally, merely examining these 2 numbers won't say much about the linearity of the frequency response. A full frequency response chart, on the other hand, will demonstrate if there are any kind of peaks and valleys and also show the way the frequency response is to be understood. Peaks along with valleys could potentially cause colorization of the sound. If at all possible the gain of the amp needs to be linear over the entire operating range. In order to better comprehend the frequency response behavior of a specific model, you should try to figure out under which conditions the response was determined. You might find this info in the data sheet of the amplifier. However, a lot of producers will not publish those in which case you ought to get in touch with the manufacturer directly. Actually amps may have different frequency responses depending on the loudspeaker that is hooked up.

The circumstances under which the frequency response was calculated may also be necessary to recognize. One condition which can affect the frequency response is the impedance of the speaker connected to the amplifier. Typical speaker impedances range between 2 to 16 Ohms. The lower the loudspeaker impedance the higher the burden for the amplifier.

This change is most detectable with most digital amps, generally known as Class-D amplifiers. Class-D amps have a lowpass filter within their output to be able to reduce the switching components that are produced through the internal power FETs. A changing speaker load will impact the filter response to some extent. Commonly the lower the speaker impedance the lower the maximum frequency of the amp. Furthermore, the linearity of the amplifier gain will depend on the load. Several of the most recent digital amplifiers feed back the music signal after the lowpass filter in order to compensate for this drawback and also to make the frequency response of the amp independent of the attached load. Then again, if the amp is not designed properly, this sort of feedback could cause instability and also bring about loud noise being produced by the amplifier if specific loudspeakers are attached. One more approach uses audio transformers between the power stage of the amplifier and several outputs. Every single output was created to connect a different loudspeaker load. This approach makes sure that the amplifier will be loaded equally and in addition enhances amplifier efficiency.




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