None of today's music systems would be possible lacking the help of today's power amps which strive to satisfy higher and higher demands concerning power and audio fidelity. It is hard to select an amplifier given the large range of styles and designs. I am going to clarify a few of the most common amp designs such as "tube amplifiers", "linear amps", "class-AB" and "class-D" as well as "class-T amps" to help you understand a few of the terms frequently used by amplifier makers. This essay should also help you figure out what topology is best for your specific application. Simply put, the use of an audio amplifier is to convert a low-power audio signal into a high-power audio signal. The high-power signal is great enough to drive a loudspeaker adequately loud. To do that, an amp makes use of one or more elements that are controlled by the low-power signal in order to produce a large-power signal. These elements range from tubes, bipolar transistors to FET transistors.
An audio amp will convert a low-level music signal that frequently originates from a high-impedance source into a high-level signal which may drive a speaker with a low impedance. In order to do that, an amp utilizes one or several elements that are controlled by the low-power signal in order to produce a large-power signal. Those elements range from tubes, bipolar transistors to FET transistors.
A few decades ago, the most common type of audio amplifier were tube amplifiers. Tube amplifiers make use of a tube as the amplifying element. The current flow through the tube is controlled by a low-level control signal. In that way the low-level audio is transformed into a high-level signal. One dilemma with tubes is that they are not extremely linear when amplifying signals. Aside from the original audio, there are going to be overtones or higher harmonics present in the amplified signal. Thus tube amplifiers have quite large distortion. A lot of people prefer tube amps since those higher harmonics are often perceived as the tube amp sounding "warm" or "pleasant". A different disadvantage of tube amps, however, is the small power efficiency. The bulk of power which tube amps consume is being dissipated as heat and only a fraction is being transformed into audio power. Tube amps, on the other hand, a fairly costly to produce and thus tube amplifiers have mostly been replaced with amps utilizing transistor elements which are less expensive to manufacture.
Solid-state amplifiers employ a semiconductor element, such as a bipolar transistor or FET in place of the tube and the earliest sort is called "class-A" amps. The working principle of class-A amps is very similar to that of tube amps. The primary difference is that a transistor is being used instead of the tube for amplifying the music signal. The amplified high-level signal is at times fed back in order to reduce harmonic distortion. Regarding harmonic distortion, class-A amplifiers rank highest amongst all kinds of music amps. These amps also typically exhibit quite low noise. As such class-A amps are perfect for extremely demanding applications in which low distortion and low noise are crucial. Yet, similar to tube amps, class-A amplifiers have quite low power efficiency and the majority of the power is wasted.
Solid state amplifiers replace the tube with semiconductor elements, usually bipolar transistors or FETs. The earliest kind of solid-state amplifiers is often known as class-A amplifiers. The working principle of class-A amps is quite similar to that of tube amplifiers. The main difference is that a transistor is being used in place of the tube for amplifying the music signal. The amplified high-level signal is sometimes fed back to minimize harmonic distortion. If you need an ultra-low distortion amplifier then you may wish to investigate class-A amps since they provide amongst the smallest distortion of any audio amps. Class-A amps, though, waste most of the energy as heat. As a result they generally have large heat sinks and are fairly heavy.
Class-D amps are able to attain power efficiencies higher than 90% by making use of a switching transistor which is continuously being switched on and off and thereby the transistor itself does not dissipate any heat. The switching transistor, which is being controlled by a pulse-width modulator generates a high-frequency switching component which needs to be removed from the amplified signal by using a lowpass filter. Both the pulse-width modulator and the transistor have non-linearities that result in class-D amplifiers having bigger audio distortion than other types of amps.
In order to resolve the problem of high audio distortion, modern switching amplifier designs incorporate feedback. The amplified signal is compared with the original low-level signal and errors are corrected. One kind of audio amplifiers that uses this kind of feedback is known as "class-T" or "t amp". Class-T amplifiers feed back the high-level switching signal to the audio signal processor for comparison. These amps exhibit small audio distortion and can be made extremely small.
An audio amp will convert a low-level music signal that frequently originates from a high-impedance source into a high-level signal which may drive a speaker with a low impedance. In order to do that, an amp utilizes one or several elements that are controlled by the low-power signal in order to produce a large-power signal. Those elements range from tubes, bipolar transistors to FET transistors.
A few decades ago, the most common type of audio amplifier were tube amplifiers. Tube amplifiers make use of a tube as the amplifying element. The current flow through the tube is controlled by a low-level control signal. In that way the low-level audio is transformed into a high-level signal. One dilemma with tubes is that they are not extremely linear when amplifying signals. Aside from the original audio, there are going to be overtones or higher harmonics present in the amplified signal. Thus tube amplifiers have quite large distortion. A lot of people prefer tube amps since those higher harmonics are often perceived as the tube amp sounding "warm" or "pleasant". A different disadvantage of tube amps, however, is the small power efficiency. The bulk of power which tube amps consume is being dissipated as heat and only a fraction is being transformed into audio power. Tube amps, on the other hand, a fairly costly to produce and thus tube amplifiers have mostly been replaced with amps utilizing transistor elements which are less expensive to manufacture.
Solid-state amplifiers employ a semiconductor element, such as a bipolar transistor or FET in place of the tube and the earliest sort is called "class-A" amps. The working principle of class-A amps is very similar to that of tube amps. The primary difference is that a transistor is being used instead of the tube for amplifying the music signal. The amplified high-level signal is at times fed back in order to reduce harmonic distortion. Regarding harmonic distortion, class-A amplifiers rank highest amongst all kinds of music amps. These amps also typically exhibit quite low noise. As such class-A amps are perfect for extremely demanding applications in which low distortion and low noise are crucial. Yet, similar to tube amps, class-A amplifiers have quite low power efficiency and the majority of the power is wasted.
Solid state amplifiers replace the tube with semiconductor elements, usually bipolar transistors or FETs. The earliest kind of solid-state amplifiers is often known as class-A amplifiers. The working principle of class-A amps is quite similar to that of tube amplifiers. The main difference is that a transistor is being used in place of the tube for amplifying the music signal. The amplified high-level signal is sometimes fed back to minimize harmonic distortion. If you need an ultra-low distortion amplifier then you may wish to investigate class-A amps since they provide amongst the smallest distortion of any audio amps. Class-A amps, though, waste most of the energy as heat. As a result they generally have large heat sinks and are fairly heavy.
Class-D amps are able to attain power efficiencies higher than 90% by making use of a switching transistor which is continuously being switched on and off and thereby the transistor itself does not dissipate any heat. The switching transistor, which is being controlled by a pulse-width modulator generates a high-frequency switching component which needs to be removed from the amplified signal by using a lowpass filter. Both the pulse-width modulator and the transistor have non-linearities that result in class-D amplifiers having bigger audio distortion than other types of amps.
In order to resolve the problem of high audio distortion, modern switching amplifier designs incorporate feedback. The amplified signal is compared with the original low-level signal and errors are corrected. One kind of audio amplifiers that uses this kind of feedback is known as "class-T" or "t amp". Class-T amplifiers feed back the high-level switching signal to the audio signal processor for comparison. These amps exhibit small audio distortion and can be made extremely small.
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