Are you searching to get a brand new amp for your home loudspeakers? You might be dazzled by the number of choices you have. In order to make an informed selection, it is best to familiarize yourself with popular specs. One of these terms is known as "signal-to-noise ratio" and is not often understood. I am going to help clarify the meaning of this term. As soon as you have selected a range of amplifiers, it's time to investigate several of the specs in more detail in order to help you narrow down your search to one product. Each amplifier is going to make a certain amount of hiss as well as hum. The signal-to-noise ratio will help calculate the amount of hiss generated by the amplifier.
While trying to find an amp, you firstly are going to check the cost, power amongst additional basic criteria. Nonetheless, after this initial selection, you are going to still have a number of products to choose from. Now you are going to concentrate more on a number of of the technical specifications, like signal-to-noise ratio in addition to harmonic distortion. One important parameter of power amplifiers is the signal-to-noise ratio. To put it simply, the signal-to-noise ratio describes 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.
You can make a straightforward comparison of the amplifier hiss by short circuiting the amp input, setting the gain to maximum and listening to a loudspeaker attached to the amp. The noise which you hear is created by the amplifier itself. Make sure that the gain of the amplifiers is set to the same level. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively evaluate the level of noise between different amplifiers. The general rule is: the smaller the amount of noise which you hear the better the noise performance. In order to help you evaluate the noise performance, amplifier suppliers publish the signal-to-noise ratio in their amplifier spec sheets. Simply put, the higher the signal-to-noise ratio, the smaller the amount of noise the amp generates. There are numerous reasons why power amps will add some form of noise or other unwanted signal. Transistors and resistors which are part of every modern amplifier by nature create noise. Because the amp overall noise performance is mostly determined by the performance of components located at the amp input, makers will try to pick low-noise elements while developing the amp input stage.
Many of today's amplifiers are based on a digital switching topology. They are named "class-D" or "class-T" amps. Switching amps include a power stage that is continuously switched at a frequency of around 400 kHz. This switching frequency is also hiss that is part of the amplified signal. Yet, recent amp specifications usually only consider the hiss between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.
The most widespread technique for measuring the signal-to-noise ratio is to set the amp to a gain which permits the maximum output swing. After that a test tone is fed to the amplifier. The frequency of this signal is generally 1 kHz. The amplitude of this signal is 60 dB underneath the full scale signal. Then the noise-floor energy is measured in the frequency range between 20 Hz and 20 kHz and compared with the full scale signal energy.
Frequently the signal-to-noise ratio is shown in a more subjective manner as "dbA" or "A weighted". This technique tries to examine in how far the amplifier noise is perceived by human hearing which is most perceptive to signals at frequencies at 1 kHz. As a result an A-weighting filter will magnify the noise floor for frequencies which are easily perceived and suppress the noise floor at frequencies which are hardly noticed. Many amplifiers are going to show a larger A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio than the un-weighted ratio.
While trying to find an amp, you firstly are going to check the cost, power amongst additional basic criteria. Nonetheless, after this initial selection, you are going to still have a number of products to choose from. Now you are going to concentrate more on a number of of the technical specifications, like signal-to-noise ratio in addition to harmonic distortion. One important parameter of power amplifiers is the signal-to-noise ratio. To put it simply, the signal-to-noise ratio describes 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.
You can make a straightforward comparison of the amplifier hiss by short circuiting the amp input, setting the gain to maximum and listening to a loudspeaker attached to the amp. The noise which you hear is created by the amplifier itself. Make sure that the gain of the amplifiers is set to the same level. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively evaluate the level of noise between different amplifiers. The general rule is: the smaller the amount of noise which you hear the better the noise performance. In order to help you evaluate the noise performance, amplifier suppliers publish the signal-to-noise ratio in their amplifier spec sheets. Simply put, the higher the signal-to-noise ratio, the smaller the amount of noise the amp generates. There are numerous reasons why power amps will add some form of noise or other unwanted signal. Transistors and resistors which are part of every modern amplifier by nature create noise. Because the amp overall noise performance is mostly determined by the performance of components located at the amp input, makers will try to pick low-noise elements while developing the amp input stage.
Many of today's amplifiers are based on a digital switching topology. They are named "class-D" or "class-T" amps. Switching amps include a power stage that is continuously switched at a frequency of around 400 kHz. This switching frequency is also hiss that is part of the amplified signal. Yet, recent amp specifications usually only consider the hiss between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.
The most widespread technique for measuring the signal-to-noise ratio is to set the amp to a gain which permits the maximum output swing. After that a test tone is fed to the amplifier. The frequency of this signal is generally 1 kHz. The amplitude of this signal is 60 dB underneath the full scale signal. Then the noise-floor energy is measured in the frequency range between 20 Hz and 20 kHz and compared with the full scale signal energy.
Frequently the signal-to-noise ratio is shown in a more subjective manner as "dbA" or "A weighted". This technique tries to examine in how far the amplifier noise is perceived by human hearing which is most perceptive to signals at frequencies at 1 kHz. As a result an A-weighting filter will magnify the noise floor for frequencies which are easily perceived and suppress the noise floor at frequencies which are hardly noticed. Many amplifiers are going to show a larger A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio than the un-weighted ratio.
About the Author:
Check out this great site in order to find more infos concerning hifi amplifiers. Also, check out http://stores.ebay.com/HiFi-Sound-Connection-Car-Audio/Amplifiers-/_i.html?_fsub=3630890.
Post a Comment