When buying a new amplifier, you probably will take a glimpse at the technical specs. One often found parameter is the frequency response. This parameter although important will not tell the full story with regards to how good the amp is going to sound. I am going to make clear the meaning of this phrase and even provide a few recommendations on how to interpret it while looking for an amp.
Actually, an amplifier that has a frequency response from 10 Hz to 30 kHz can in fact have much poorer sound quality than an amplifier that provides a frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz. Different suppliers appear to employ different methods in order to determine frequency response. The most regularly used way is to describe the frequency response as the frequency range within which the amp will have quite constant amplification with a greatest drop of 3 decibel (dB). Typically the decline in amplification is highest at the lower and upper frequency.
Yet, a lot of companies overlook this particular established practice. They push the lower frequency and higher frequency to where the amplifier rarely has any gain. Moreover, these numbers say almost nothing about precisely how linear the amp is working within this range. Hence it is better to have a full frequency response document. This kind of graph will show whether there are any sort of major peaks or valleys within the operating frequency range. Peaks as well as valleys might result in colorization of the audio. Ideally the gain of the amplifier ought to be linear through the entire working range. The conditions under which the frequency response was calculated may also be essential to recognize. Actually amplifiers might have different frequency responses depending on the speaker which is connected.
You furthermore may need to look at the circumstances under which the frequency response was measured. You normally are not going to find any information about the measurement conditions, however, in the manufacturer's data sheet. The fact is that lots of amps are going to function in a different way with different speaker loads. This is mainly because that different speaker loads will result in changes to the behavior of the output power stage of the amp. This change is most obvious with most digital amplifiers, also known as Class-D amplifiers. Class-D amps have a lowpass filter inside their output in order to suppress the switching components which are created through the internal power FETs. Yet, the frequency response of the amp now will depend on the loudspeaker load considering that the behavior of this lowpass filter is influenced by the load impedance. Typically the lower the speaker load impedance the lower the upper cut-off frequency of the amp
Various amps include feedback to compensate for changes in gain because of different connected loads. Yet another approach makes use of audio transformers between the power stage of the amplifier and several outputs. Every output was created to attach a different loudspeaker load. This approach makes certain that the amplifier is going to be loaded equally and in addition improves amplifier efficiency.
Actually, an amplifier that has a frequency response from 10 Hz to 30 kHz can in fact have much poorer sound quality than an amplifier that provides a frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz. Different suppliers appear to employ different methods in order to determine frequency response. The most regularly used way is to describe the frequency response as the frequency range within which the amp will have quite constant amplification with a greatest drop of 3 decibel (dB). Typically the decline in amplification is highest at the lower and upper frequency.
Yet, a lot of companies overlook this particular established practice. They push the lower frequency and higher frequency to where the amplifier rarely has any gain. Moreover, these numbers say almost nothing about precisely how linear the amp is working within this range. Hence it is better to have a full frequency response document. This kind of graph will show whether there are any sort of major peaks or valleys within the operating frequency range. Peaks as well as valleys might result in colorization of the audio. Ideally the gain of the amplifier ought to be linear through the entire working range. The conditions under which the frequency response was calculated may also be essential to recognize. Actually amplifiers might have different frequency responses depending on the speaker which is connected.
You furthermore may need to look at the circumstances under which the frequency response was measured. You normally are not going to find any information about the measurement conditions, however, in the manufacturer's data sheet. The fact is that lots of amps are going to function in a different way with different speaker loads. This is mainly because that different speaker loads will result in changes to the behavior of the output power stage of the amp. This change is most obvious with most digital amplifiers, also known as Class-D amplifiers. Class-D amps have a lowpass filter inside their output in order to suppress the switching components which are created through the internal power FETs. Yet, the frequency response of the amp now will depend on the loudspeaker load considering that the behavior of this lowpass filter is influenced by the load impedance. Typically the lower the speaker load impedance the lower the upper cut-off frequency of the amp
Various amps include feedback to compensate for changes in gain because of different connected loads. Yet another approach makes use of audio transformers between the power stage of the amplifier and several outputs. Every output was created to attach a different loudspeaker load. This approach makes certain that the amplifier is going to be loaded equally and in addition improves amplifier efficiency.
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