Are you searching to buy a new amplifier for your home loudspeakers? You might be dazzled by the number of choices you have. In order to make an informed choice, it is best to familiarize yourself with popular specs. One of these specifications is referred to as "signal-to-noise ratio" and is not often understood. I am going to help explain the meaning of this term. Once you have narrowed down your search by glancing at a few basic criteria, such as the level of output wattage, the dimensions of the amplifier in addition to the price, you are going to still have quite a few products to choose from. Now it is time to look at a few of the technical specs in more detail. An important criterion of power amps is the signal-to-noise ratio. To put it simply, the signal-to-noise ratio shows how much hum or hiss the amp is going to add to the audio signal. This ratio is commonly shown in decibel or "db" for short.
As soon as you have chosen a number of amps, it's time to investigate a few of the specs in more detail to help you narrow down your search to one product. Every amplifier will make a certain level of hiss and hum. The signal-to-noise ratio is going to help quantify the level of static produced by the amplifier.
You can perform a simple comparison of the amp hiss by short circuiting the amp input, setting the gain to maximum and listening to a loudspeaker attached to the amplifier. The noise which you hear is generated by the amplifier itself. Make sure that the volume of the amplifiers is set to the same level. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively evaluate the amount of hiss between several amps. The general rule is: the lower the level of hiss which you hear the better the noise performance.
The majority of today's power amps are digital amplifiers, also called "class-d amps". Class-D amplifiers make use of a switching stage which oscillates at a frequency in the range of 300 kHz to 1 MHz. In consequence, the output signal of switching amps have a fairly big level of switching noise. This noise component, however, is generally inaudible as it is well above 20 kHz. Nonetheless, it can still contribute to speaker distortion. Signal-to-noise ratio is usually only shown within the range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Therefore, a lowpass filter is utilized when measuring switching amps to eliminate the switching noise.
Producers measure the signal-to-noise ratio by setting the amplifier such that the full output swing can be achieved and by feeding a test signal to the amplifier that is normally 60 dB underneath the full scale of the amp. Subsequently the noise-floor energy is measured in the frequency range between 20 Hz and 20 kHz and compared with the full scale signal energy.
Often you will find the expression "dBA" or "a-weighted" in your amplifier parameter sheet. A weighting is a technique of showing the noise floor in a more subjective fashion. This method attempts to evaluate in how far the amplifier noise is perceived by human hearing which is most sensitive to signals at frequencies at 1 kHz. An A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio weighs the noise floor in accordance to the human hearing and is normally larger than the unweighted signal-to-noise ratio.
As soon as you have chosen a number of amps, it's time to investigate a few of the specs in more detail to help you narrow down your search to one product. Every amplifier will make a certain level of hiss and hum. The signal-to-noise ratio is going to help quantify the level of static produced by the amplifier.
You can perform a simple comparison of the amp hiss by short circuiting the amp input, setting the gain to maximum and listening to a loudspeaker attached to the amplifier. The noise which you hear is generated by the amplifier itself. Make sure that the volume of the amplifiers is set to the same level. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively evaluate the amount of hiss between several amps. The general rule is: the lower the level of hiss which you hear the better the noise performance.
The majority of today's power amps are digital amplifiers, also called "class-d amps". Class-D amplifiers make use of a switching stage which oscillates at a frequency in the range of 300 kHz to 1 MHz. In consequence, the output signal of switching amps have a fairly big level of switching noise. This noise component, however, is generally inaudible as it is well above 20 kHz. Nonetheless, it can still contribute to speaker distortion. Signal-to-noise ratio is usually only shown within the range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Therefore, a lowpass filter is utilized when measuring switching amps to eliminate the switching noise.
Producers measure the signal-to-noise ratio by setting the amplifier such that the full output swing can be achieved and by feeding a test signal to the amplifier that is normally 60 dB underneath the full scale of the amp. Subsequently the noise-floor energy is measured in the frequency range between 20 Hz and 20 kHz and compared with the full scale signal energy.
Often you will find the expression "dBA" or "a-weighted" in your amplifier parameter sheet. A weighting is a technique of showing the noise floor in a more subjective fashion. This method attempts to evaluate in how far the amplifier noise is perceived by human hearing which is most sensitive to signals at frequencies at 1 kHz. An A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio weighs the noise floor in accordance to the human hearing and is normally larger than the unweighted signal-to-noise ratio.
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