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I will have a look at several audio amplifiers and describe some important expressions to help you select the perfect amplifier for your loudspeakers It is hard to select the right audio amp because of the large quantity of types. All of these models have different specs. They are based on different technologies and are available in all kinds of shapes and sizes. This makes it tricky to decide which type to pick. You don’t have to be a specialist. Just follow some simple guidelines and you should be pleased with your amplifier. Amplifiers differ in their size and range from types that will take up a good part of your living room whereas a number of of the latest mini amplifier types are as small as a deck of cards. A lot of models will be the size of a ordinary audio rack so that you can easily stack it on top of your audio equipment. The vast majority of modern audio amps are solid state amplifiers versus more traditional tube amps. Tube amplifiers have been dominant a decade or so ago. Though, tube amplifiers have fairly high audio distortion. Audio distortion refers to how much the audio signal is being degraded whilst passing through the amplifier and is given in percent. This value is often used when evaluating the audio quality of amplifiers. Harmonic distortion of tube amplifiers is frequently as large as 10%. Solid-state amps will have lower audio distortion. Still, distortion will depend on the particular audio amplifier technology. In the past, mostly "Class-A" and "Class-AB" amps were obtainable which are also referred to as "analog amplifiers". This technology provides fairly low audio distortion. Though, the power efficiency is only 10 to 30%. Power efficiency refers to how much of the electrical power is actually used to amplify the signal. The remaining part is wasted as heat. An amp with low power efficiency will radiate most of its power as heat. Another technology is called "Class-D". This technology offers much greater power efficiency than analog amplifiers, generally around 80 to 90%. "Class-D" amplifiers are also referred to as "digital amplifiers". The downside is that many digital amplifiers have larger audio distortion than analog amplifiers though a few of the latest types make use of a feedback mechanism to minimize distortion to levels of 0.05% and lower. The amp should be capable to deliver adequate output power to sufficiently drive your speakers which will depend not only on how much power your loudspeakers can handle but also on the size of your listening area. Speaker power handling capability is given as peak power and average power. The peak power value refers to how much power the speaker can tolerate for a short period of time while the average power handling value describes how much power you can drive the speaker at constantly without damage. If your listening area is relatively small then you may not need to drive your loudspeaker to its rated power handling value. You would almost certainly be good getting an amp that can offer 20 to 50 Watts even though your speakers might be capable to handle 100 Watts of power. Low-impedance loudspeakers generally offer high sensitivity and are less difficult to drive to high volume than high-impedance loudspeakers. Be certain that your amplifier can drive your speaker impedance. You can easily find the rated speaker impedance range in your amplifier’s user manual. Two additional essential parameters to look at when selecting an amplifier are signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response. Signal-to-noise ratio denotes how much noise the amplifier will generate and should be at least 100 dB for a high-quality amplifier. The frequency response reveals which audio frequency range the amplifier covers and should be no less than 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
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You can get further information regarding audio amplifier technologies and mini amplifier products from Amphony's website.
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