Several Suggestions To Help Comprehend The Signal-To-Noise Ratio Of Today's Power Amps

By Sherry Lambert


To help you pick an audio amplifier, I will describe the term "signal-to-noise ratio" that is commonly used to depict the performance of audio amps.

A method to accomplish a straightforward assessment of the noise performance of an amp is to short circuit the amplifier input and then to crank up the amplifier to its maximum. Subsequently listen to the loudspeaker which you have attached. By and large you are going to hear 2 components. The first is hissing. In addition, you will regularly hear a hum at 50 or 60 Hz. Both of these are components which are generated by the amp itself. Ensure that the volume of the amplifiers is set to the same level. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively compare the amount of noise between several amplifiers. The general rule is: the lower the amount of noise that you hear the higher the noise performance.

If you favor an amp with a small amount of hissing, you may look at the signal-to-noise ratio number of the spec sheet. A lot of producers will publish this figure. Amplifiers with a high signal-to-noise ratio will output a small amount of noise. Noise is generated due to several factors. One reason is that today's amps all use components including transistors and resistors. Those components will produce some amount of hiss. The overall noise depends on how much noise every component generates. Nonetheless, the location of these elements is also essential. Components which are part of the amplifier input stage will normally contribute most of the noise.

Many recent power amplifiers include a wattage switching stage which switches at a frequency around 500 kHz. This switching noise may result in a certain amount of loudspeaker distortion yet is typically not included in the the signal-to-noise ratio which only considers noise between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.

Many latest power amplifiers incorporate a wattage switching stage that switches at a frequency around 500 kHz. This switching noise can result in some level of speaker distortion yet is usually not included in the the signal-to-noise ratio which merely considers noise in the range of 20 Hz and 20 kHz. The signal-to-noise ratio is measured by inputting a 1 kHz test signal 60 dB underneath the full scale and measuring the noise floor of the amplifier. The volume of the amp is set such that the full output power of the amp can be achieved. After that the noise-floor energy is measured in the frequency range between 20 Hz and 20 kHz and compared with the full scale signal energy.

An additional convention in order to state the signal-to-noise ratio employs more subjective terms. These terms are "dBA" or "A weighted". You are going to spot these terms in most amp parameter sheets. 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. The A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio is frequently larger than the unweighted ratio and is shown in the majority of amp spec sheets.




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