Dec 7, 2013

Geting A Grasp On The Power Specification Of Music Amplifiers

By Sherry Lambert


Choosing the perfect type is difficult while faced with a huge array of different terms plus specs, such as "T-amp", "channel separation", "efficiency" etc. You may not even fully know the most fundamental of these terms, like "amplifier power". I am going to provide a quick overview of the output power term in order to help you better comprehend the importance of this specification and how it relates to the performance of an power amplifier.

If you are considering to acquire an audio amp to set up your home sound system, you will often be confronted with a number of strange terms describing its functioning. However how do these numbers relate to how the amp sounds and how are these to be interpreted? Next I am going to explain the "output power" term of stereo amps. This spec is one of the most essential and possibly vital specs to understand. "Wattage" describes how loud your amp can drive your loudspeakers. You want to choose the power amplifier wattage based on how large your listening environment is. Many amps will show rising audio distortion as output power increases. Therefore, you want to choose an amp which offers bigger output power than you will in fact need. This is going to ensure that you will never drive the amp into regions of big distortion.

The output power of the audio amplifiers is shown as "wattage". This describes how loud your amp can drive your loudspeakers. You want to select the power amplifier wattage based on how large your listening environment is. Please note that numerous amplifiers will start clipping the audio as soon as the audio reaches higher wattage. If you wish to get pleasure from low-distortion audio then you may want to choose an amp that is going to offer you more wattage than you will really need.

Nowadays most amps will specify rms power that offers a better indication of the amplifier's true performance. Though, please make sure that your amplifier offers enough headroom to avoid clipping of the audio. The most important reason is that audio signals are going to have brief peaks of high power that the amplifier has to handle. Rms power is measured with a constant sine wave which hardly compares with a music signal by way of the power envelope.

Please note that often the peak output power of the amp is going to depend on the impedance of your loudspeakers which is usually between 4 and 8 Ohms. An audio amplifier which has a fixed internal supply voltage will have a maximum output signal swing that is restricted by that supply voltage. If you are driving an 8-Ohm speaker then the amplifier has to deliver twice the output voltage than while driving a 4-Ohm speaker in order to output the same level of output power. If the maximum output power is not referenced to a speaker impedance, you should get in touch with the producer. Usually a 4-Ohm speaker is utilized as a reference.




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