I will take a look at a number of audio amplifiers as well as mini amplifier models and explain some essential terms to help you pick the ideal amplifier for your loudspeakers
It is tricky to choose the best audio amplifier as a result of the large amount of types. All of these models have different specs. They are based on different technologies and come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. This makes it hard to decide which type to select. You don’t have to be a specialist. Just follow some plain suggestions and you ought to be satisfied with your amp.
Amplifiers vary in their size and range from types that will take up a good part of your living room while a few of the latest mini amplifier models are as small as a deck of cards. A big number of amplifiers are the size of a typical rack. This enables your amplifier to be stacked on top of your other audio devices.
The majority of today’s audio amplifiers are based on solid-state technology while a tiny portion is based on tube technology which has been popular over a decade ago. Tube amps, however, have a relatively large amount of harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion describes how much the audio signal is degraded whilst being amplified. This term is often used while evaluating the audio quality of amplifiers.
Harmonic distortion of tube amplifiers is frequently as high as 10%. Solid-state amps will have less audio distortion. However, distortion will depend on the specific audio amplifier technology. In the past, for the most part “Class-A” and “Class-AB” amplifiers were available which are also called “analog amplifiers”. Audio amps which are based on these technologies normally have low harmonic distortion. Furthermore, this technology is relatively economical. Though, the drawback is that the power efficiency is merely in the order of 20% to 30%. Power efficiency describes how much of the electrical power is used to amplify the audio as opposed to being wasted as heat. Amplifiers with low power efficiency will need quite large heat sinks since most of the power is radiated.
In comparison, “Class-D” amps which are also known as “digital amplifiers” offer a power efficiency of usually 80 to 90%. This allows the amp and power supply to be made much smaller than analog amplifiers. The downside is that digital amplifiers frequently have larger audio distortion than analog amplifiers. This is mostly a result of the switching distortion of the output power stage. Latest digital audio amplifiers, however, make use of a feedback mechanism and can minimize the audio distortion to below 0.05%.
Your amp should deliver sufficient power to drive your speakers. The amount of power will depend on the power handling rating of your speakers. Another factor is the size of your room. Loudspeaker power handling is given as peak power which denotes the utmost amount of power during short bursts whereas average power refers to how much power the speakers can tolerate continuously.
If your listening area is relatively small then you might not require to drive your speaker to its rated power handling value. You would probably be good having an amplifier that can deliver 20 to 50 Watts despite the fact that your speakers might be capable to tolerate 100 Watts of power. Low-impedance loudspeakers normally offer high sensitivity and are simpler to drive to high volume than high-impedance speakers. Not all amplifiers can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your speaker which is given in Ohms. Then look at your amplifier manual to make sure that your amplifier can drive this impedance.
Two additional significant parameters to look at when selecting an amplifier are signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response. Signal-to-noise ratio describes how much noise the amp will introduce and should be at least 100 dB for a high-quality amplifier. The frequency response indicates which audio frequency range the amplifier covers and should be at least 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
