Saturday, March 1, 2014

Understanding The Frequency Response Spec Of Today's Music Amps

By Marta McBrian


When selecting a brand new amplifier, it is likely you will take a glimpse at the technical specifications. An often found spec is the frequency response. This spec even though significant won't tell the full story pertaining to how well the amp will sound. To help you make a wiser purchasing decision, I will clarify what this specification means and the way to understand it. This ideally is going to make certain you'll get the ideal amp for your task.

A large frequency response doesn't imply the amp offers good sound quality. By way of example an amp which has a frequency response between 30 Hz and 15 kHz might sound a lot better than another amp having a response between 10 Hz and 30 kHz. Furthermore, every manufacturer, it appears, utilizes a different technique of specifying the lowest and maximum frequency of their amps. Normally, the frequency response displays the normal operating range of the amplifier. Inside this range, the amp gain is essentially constant. At the lower and upper cutoff frequencies the gain will decrease by no more than 3 decibels.

Then again, the frequency response often is utilized in order to deceive buyers by means of stretching out the frequency range a good deal beyond the range where the amplifier still operates effectively and also covers up the reality that the amp may not be linear. If possible you should really make an effort to get a frequency response diagram from the supplier. In this diagram, you will discover how the amp functions inside the frequency response range. Additionally you can discover any peaks and / or valleys the amplifier could possibly have. Peaks as well as valleys might result in colorization of the audio. Preferably the gain of the amplifier should be linear through the entire working range.

You furthermore need to look at the circumstances under which the frequency response was measured. You usually are not going to find any kind of information about the measurement conditions, however, in the maker's data sheet. The fact is that numerous amplifiers will work differently with different loudspeaker loads. This is due to the fact that different loudspeaker loads will result in changes to the behavior of the output power stage of the amp.

Some amp topologies offer a method to compensate for changes in the amplifier gain with various speaker loads. One example of these approaches employs feedback. The amplifier output signal after the interior lowpass is input to the amplifier input for comparison. If not designed adequately, this technique could cause instability of the amplifier though. Another technique utilizes audio transformers between the power stage of the amp and various outputs. Every output was created to connect a different speaker load. This method helps to ensure that the amplifier will be loaded equally and in addition improves amplifier efficiency.




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