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A Look At The Frequency Response Expression Of Today's Stereo Amplifiers

Written By Unknown on Saturday, April 5, 2014 | Saturday, April 05, 2014

By Marta McBrian


The frequency response is probably the most commonly found parameter to characterize power amps. However, it can regularly be deceptive and might not really give a good indication of the sound quality. You may not completely understand how the frequency response is calculated. I'm going to explain what exactly this particular phrase means. Ideally you'll be able to make a much more well informed buying decision.

An amp will magnify an audio signal that is within the frequency response range. This range is specified by showing 2 frequencies: a lower and also upper frequency. For example, the lower frequency could be 20 Hz and the upper frequency 20 kHz. Using this spec it seems like the amp would be able to operate as a HIFI amplifier. However, there's far more to understanding the amplifier's functionality than merely reviewing these figures.

A large frequency response doesn't imply the amplifier offers excellent audio quality. As an example an amplifier having 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. In addition, each maker, it appears, uses a different technique of specifying the lowest and maximum frequency of their amps. The conventional convention is to display the frequency range inside which the amplification is going to drop at most 3 dB from the nominal gain. However, various companies push this standard to the limit and tend to list an upper frequency where the amplifier is going to barely generate a signal any longer. Additionally, simply looking at these 2 figures won't say much concerning the linearity of the frequency response. A full frequency response graph, on the other hand, will demonstrate whether there are any kind of peaks or valleys and in addition show the way the frequency response is to be understood. Peaks as well as valleys could cause colorization of the sound. Ideally the gain of the amp needs to be linear over the entire operating range.

In order to better understand the frequency response behavior of a specific model, you should try to figure out under which conditions the response was calculated. You'll find these details in the data sheet of the amplifier. Then again, a lot of makers are not going to show those in which case you may need to get in touch with the maker directly. One condition that might influence the frequency response is the impedance of the loudspeaker connected to the amp. Standard loudspeaker impedances range from 2 to 16 Ohms. The lower the speaker impedance the higher the load for the amplifier.

This change is most apparent with most digital amplifiers, generally known as Class-D amps. Class-D amps employ a lowpass filter inside their output to reduce the switching components which are created from the internal power FETs. However, the frequency response of the amplifier now depends on the loudspeaker load since the behavior of this lowpass filter is influenced by the load impedance. Commonly the lower the speaker load impedance the lower the upper cut-off frequency of the amplifier Some amp topologies provide a mechanism to compensate for changes in the amplifier gain with various speaker loads. One of these techniques makes use of feedback. The amplifier output signal after the interior lowpass is input to the amplifier input for comparison. If not designed properly, this technique could cause instability of the amp however. Different amps make use of transformers and offer outputs for different speaker loads. Apart from improving the frequency response of the amp, this method typically additionally enhances the amplifier power efficiency.




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