Some Shopping Tips For Audio Amplifiers
If you want to set up some speakers then most likely you will need an audio amplifier as the connecting element between your audio source and your speakers. There are many different types of audio amplifiers on the market. Therefore, choosing the ideal amplifier might not be very easy. In this article, I'm going to offer some helpful advice for choosing XXX and also offer some tips that should help you avoid common mistakes when installing the amplifier.
When choosing an audio amplifier, one of the first considerations is the amplifier wattage. If you are setting up your speakers in a fairly large room then not only do you need some fairly powerful speakers but also an audio amplifier that will be able to drive your speakers sufficiently loud. For small rooms, however, you can get an amplifier that offers no more than 10 Watts of wattage. Note, however, that there are two conventions for specifying the amplifier wattage. The peak rating describes how much power the amplifier can deliver to your speakers for a short period of time. The RMS wattage, however, shows you how much wattage the amplifier can sustain continuously. The RMS wattage is much better when it comes to compairing different types of audio amplifiers than the peak wattage. That is because there is no standard for measuring the peak wattage of an amplifier. As such, many amplifier manufacturers tend to exaggerate the specifications of their products.
The size of the audio amplifier also is quite important. If you don't have a lot of space in your living room then you might want to look for a small amplifier instead of a bulky model. Some of today's audio amplifiers are extremely small. The smallest available models of audio amplifiers are no bigger than a deck of cards. The size of any audio amplifier very much depends on its efficiency. Traditional audio amplifiers used to have an efficiency of less than 30%. Most of the power which is consumed by low-efficiency amplifiers is wasted. In order to radiate power, an amplifier requires fairly bulky heat sinks. Heat sinks will cause the amplifier to become fairly bulky. On the other hand, high-efficiency amplifiers only waste a small fraction of the power that they consume. As such, modern audio amplifiers are much smaller than traditional amplifiers.
The most popular audio amplifier topologies nowadays is called "Class-D". Class-D amplifiers use a switching topology. The audio signal is amplified by a modulator which is followed by a power switching stage. This switching stage results in the amplifier to be very efficient. However, the audio fidelity of Class-D amplifiers is not quite the same as traditional Class-A or Class-B amplifiers. However, manufacturers of Class-D audio amplifiers have continued to improve their products. The very latest models of Class-D audio amplifiers have distortion figures which come quite close to those of traditional Class-A amplifiers. Class-D amplifiers have started to replace Class-A as well as other amplifiers such as tube amps. For example, almost all home theater AV receivers incorporate Class-D amplifiers.
When connecting a Class-D audio amplifier to a set of speakers, you will have to make sure that the amplifier supports your speaker impedance. Typical speaker impedances vary between 4 and 8 Ohms. However, some speakers have a very low impedance at certain frequencies. In addition, note that some speakers have an impedance which is similar to a capacitance. Some amplifiers are not able to cope with such impedances. As a result, the amplifier might start to become unstable when connected to such speakers. Therefore, verify that the amplifier can drive the speakers connected to it.
