Digital Power Amplifier
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US $998.00
Things To Understand About Amp Energy Efficiency|Benefits Of High-Efficiency Stereo Amps
Stereo amplifier models are going to naturally squander a certain amount of energy they consume. Buying a music amplifier with high efficiency can minimize the amount of wasted power. Let me clarify a number of little-known details about amp efficiency that will help you get the perfect product.
A relatively high amount of power is radiated as heat should you get a low-efficiency amp. This can produce some issues: A lot of wasted energy naturally will mean larger operating expenditure which means that a more expensive amplifier may actually in the long run possibly be more affordable when compared to a cheaper type which has lower efficiency. Lower efficiency amps will radiate a great deal of power as heat. To safeguard the circuit elements, low-efficiency amplifiers must find ways to get rid of the heat which is produced. Normally extra elements must be included in order to radiate sufficient power and maintain the ideal operating temperature. These elements are typically heat sinks and also fans. Heat sinks and fans demand space and are expensive. The amplifier therefore will turn out to be rather large and costly. Furthermore heat fans will produce operating noise. Low-efficiency amplifiers further require a great deal of circulation around the amp. As a result they can't be put in close spaces or inside air-tight enclosures.
Low-efficiency products need more total energy in order to create the same amount of audio power as high-efficiency products. Therefore they need a bigger power supply which makes the amp costlier to make. An increased amount of heat brings about further stress on elements. The life expectancy of the amplifier can be lowered and reliability can be jeopardized. High-efficiency amplifiers in contrast tend not to experience these problems and can be constructed very small.
You need to try to find the power efficiency figure when looking for an audio amplifier. The best place to look is the amp data sheet. Efficiency is commonly displayed in percent. Analog Class-D amps offer a efficiency of around 25% whilst switching-mode amps provide as much as 98%. Having an amplifier having an efficiency of 90% for example will mean that 10% of the power that is utilized is wasted when 90% would be audio power.
Please be aware, however, that efficiency depends upon how much energy the amp provides at a given moment. Since each amplifier will demand a particular level of power, regardless of the amount of power the amplifier provides to the speakers, the amp efficiency is larger the more energy the amp delivers and is typically given for the greatest power the amp can handle.
The measurement setup of amp power efficiency makes use of a power resistor that is connected to the amp. The amplifier itself is being fed a constant-envelope sine-wave signal. Next the energy used by the resistor is tested and divided by the power the amplifier consumes. Given that the efficiency is dependent upon the audio power, commonly the output power is swept and an efficiency curve created which will show the amplifier efficiency for each level of output power.
While switching (Class-D) amplifiers have among the highest efficiency, they tend to have higher music distortion than analog audio amps and reduced signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore you will need to weigh the size of the amp against the audio fidelity. Having said that, digital amplifiers have come a long way and are providing better audio fidelity than in the past. Class-T amplifiers come close to the music fidelity of analog amplifiers. Therefore picking a switching amp with great audio fidelity is now feasible.
Bentley's new 1100-watt sound system, courtesy of Naim (Autoblog)
Filed under: Audio, Gadgets, Technology, Bentley
_Click above for a high-res photo gallery of the Naim Audio System_
Dropping us yet another hint that ultra-luxury automobile buyers really do
listen to Kanye West when their windows are rolled up, Bentley Motors has
announced an exclusive partnership with British high-end audio manufacturer
Naim to fit the world's most powerful in-car production amplifier to their
full model lineup.
The bragging rights center around an 1100-watt amplifier driving up to 15
speakers (depending on the model). Cutting-edge technology on each system
includes Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and Dynamic Equalization to offer
passengers an 'as-live' in-car audio experience. To adapt the system to each
particular Bentley model, Naim analyzed each car and then designed a unique
speaker drive unit for it. According to Bentley, the painstaking measures
taken to match the acoustics to the particular vehicle are so effective that
even with rapper Kanye West belting out tunes at full system power, only a low
level of sound can be heard from outside the car. Too bad the same thing can't
be said for the Honda Civic that my teenage neighbor drives...
**Gallery: Bentley Naim Audio System**
[Source: Bentley Motors]
Continue reading _Bentley's ...
TA2024 Digital Hi-Fi Stereo Audio Digital Power Amplifier - DealExtreme
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