Monday, March 17, 2014

Do Not Be Mislead By The Manufacturer Specs Of Modern Stereo Amplifiers

By Marta McBrian


When selecting a brand new amplifier, you probably will take a look at the technical specs. An often found spec is the frequency response. This specification while vital doesn't tell the full story concerning how great the amp will sound. You possibly will not fully grasp precisely how the frequency response is calculated. Let me clarify what precisely this specific phrase means. I hope you'll be able to make a more knowledgeable purchasing decision. An amp is made to enlarge a sound signal sufficiently to drive a set of loudspeakers to moderate or large sound level. Suppliers typically publish the frequency range over which the amplifier works. If the frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz for example, the amplifier would be able to amplify any signals with a frequency higher than 20 Hz and less than 20 kHz. It might seem the larger the frequency response the better the amp. That, however, will not necessarily be the case. You have to glance at the specifications far more meticulously in order to adequately interpret them.

An amplifier is going to enlarge a sound signal that is inside the frequency response range. This range is specified by listing two frequencies: a lower and upper frequency. For instance, the lower frequency could be 20 Hz and the upper frequency 20 kHz. Using this specification it appears the amp would be able to operate as a HIFI amp. You might think the greater the frequency response the better the amplifier. That, however, will not necessarily be the case. You have to check out the specifications more carefully to correctly understand these.

Nevertheless, numerous manufacturers ignore this particular established practice. They push the lower frequency and upper frequency to where the amp hardly provides any kind of gain. On top of that, these figures tell absolutely nothing about precisely how linear the amp is working inside this range. Preferably you should seek to obtain a frequency response diagram from the supplier. In this diagram, you'll find the way the amplifier functions inside the frequency response range. Additionally you can spot any kind of peaks along with valleys the amplifier could possibly have. Peaks along with valleys could cause colorization of the audio. If possible the amp ought to have a constant amplification within the whole frequency response aside from the drop off at the upper and lower limit. Aside from the frequency response, a phase response chart will also say a whole lot about the functionality and also quality of sound of the amp.

You additionally may need to look at the circumstances under which the frequency response was measured. You usually are not going to find any kind of specifics about the measurement conditions, however, in the manufacturer's data sheet. Actually amplifiers might have different frequency responses depending on the loudspeaker that is connected.

Various amps incorporate feedback to be able to compensate for changes in gain because of different connected loads. Another technique uses audio transformers between the power stage of the amp and several outputs. Every single output was created to connect a different speaker load. This approach helps to ensure that the amplifier will be loaded equally and in addition improves amplifier efficiency.




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