Tips For Purchasing The Right Audio Amplifier

If you have spent a good amount of cash on a pair of good-quality loudspeakers, you want to be confident that you get an audio amplifier that will offer superb sound quality while meeting your budget. I will offer several tips regarding audio amp devices to aid you make the right purchasing decision.

It is tricky to select the best audio amp because of the large amount of models. All of these models have different specs. They are based on different technologies and are available in all kinds of shapes and sizes. This makes it difficult to decide which model to choose. You don’t have to be a guru. Just follow some straightforward guidelines and you ought to be pleased with your amplifier.

Amplifiers vary in their size and range from types that will take up a good part of your living room whereas a few of the most recent mini amplifier models are as tiny as a deck of cards. A lot of amplifiers are rack sized. This enables them to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.

The largest part of recent audio amps are based on solid-state technology whilst a tiny part is based on tube technology which has been popular over a decade ago. Regrettably, tube amps have relatively high audio distortion which describes how much the audio signal is degraded by the amplifier.

An audio distortion of up to 10% is characteristic for tube amplifiers while solid-state amps have less audio distortion depending on the specific technology. The most traditional amps use a "Class-A" and "Class-AB" technology. These amps are also labeled "analog amplifiers". Audio amplifiers which are based on these technologies normally have low harmonic distortion. In addition, this technology is relatively economical. Though, the downside is that the power efficiency is merely in the order of 20% to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is in fact utilized to amplify the signal. The remaining part is wasted as heat. An amp with low power efficiency will radiate most of its power as heat.

Another technology is known as "Class-D". This technology offers much higher power efficiency than analog amplifiers, generally around 80 to 90%. "Class-D" amps are also known as "digital amplifiers". Because of the switching output stage, digital amplifiers normally have higher harmonic distortion than analog amplifiers. On the other hand, some of the newest models are capable to minimize distortion to 0.05% and less by utilizing a feedback mechanism.

When choosing an amplifier, make sure that the output power is adequate to drive your loudspeakers. The required power will be determined by how much power your speakers can handle 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 indicates how much power the loudspeaker can tolerate for small periods of time. The average value on the other hand describes how much power the loudspeaker can tolerate continuously without harm.

In a small listening area, you might not require to drive your loudspeakers to their rated value. 20 to 40 Watts of power would most likely be enough. Low-impedance loudspeakers normally offer high sensitivity and are easier to drive to high volume than high-impedance speakers. Check your amplifier manual to make certain that your amp can drive your speaker impedance.

Other important parameters are the signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response which should be in the order of no less than 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio and 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response for high-quality amplifiers.

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You can get further information regarding audio amplifier technologies and mini amplifier products at Amphony's website.

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