Are you searching to acquire a brand new amp for your home speakers? You might be dazzled by the amount of alternatives you have. In order to make an informed selection, 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.
Whilst searching for an amp, you initially are going to check the cost, wattage amid additional basic criteria. However, after this initial choice, you are going to still have a number of types to choose from. Next you are going to concentrate more on some of the technical specifications, including signal-to-noise ratio and harmonic distortion. One important parameter 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 music signal. This ratio is generally shown in decibel or "db" for short.
One way to perform a simple assessment of the noise performance of an amp is to short circuit the amp input and then to crank up the amplifier to its utmost. Next listen to the loudspeaker which you have attached. Typically you will hear 2 components. The first is hissing. In addition, you will frequently hear a hum at 50 or 60 Hz. Both of these are components which are generated by the amp itself. Ensure that the gain of the amps is set to the same amount. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively evaluate the level of hiss between several amplifiers. The general rule is: the lower the level of hiss which you hear the higher the noise performance. If you favor an amp with a small level of hissing, you can look at the signal-to-noise ratio number of the spec sheet. Most suppliers will publish this number. Amps with a large signal-to-noise ratio will output a low level of static. There are a number of 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 make noise. The overall noise is dependent on how much hiss each element produces. Nonetheless, the position of these components is also vital. Components which are part of the amplifier input stage will normally contribute most of the noise.
Most of today's power amps are digital amplifiers, also known as "class-d amps". Class-D amps use a switching stage that oscillates at a frequency between 300 kHz to 1 MHz. This switching noise may cause some amount of speaker distortion but is generally not included in the the signal-to-noise ratio which only considers noise between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.
Manufacturers measure the signal-to-noise ratio by means of setting the amp such that the full output swing can be realized and by feeding a test signal to the amplifier which is normally 60 dB underneath the full scale of the amp. Subsequently, the noise floor between 20 Hz and 20 kHz is calculated and the ratio to the full-scale signal computed. The noise signal at other frequencies is eliminated through a bandpass filter throughout this measurement.
Time and again you will find the term "dBA" or "a-weighted" in your amp parameter sheet. A weighting is a method of expressing the noise floor in a more subjective fashion. This method was developed with the knowledge that human hearing perceives noise at different frequencies differently. Human hearing is most responsive to signals around 1 kHz. On the other hand, signals under 50 Hz and above 13 kHz are barely heard. The A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio is generally larger than the unweighted ratio and is shown in most amplifier spec sheets.
Whilst searching for an amp, you initially are going to check the cost, wattage amid additional basic criteria. However, after this initial choice, you are going to still have a number of types to choose from. Next you are going to concentrate more on some of the technical specifications, including signal-to-noise ratio and harmonic distortion. One important parameter 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 music signal. This ratio is generally shown in decibel or "db" for short.
One way to perform a simple assessment of the noise performance of an amp is to short circuit the amp input and then to crank up the amplifier to its utmost. Next listen to the loudspeaker which you have attached. Typically you will hear 2 components. The first is hissing. In addition, you will frequently hear a hum at 50 or 60 Hz. Both of these are components which are generated by the amp itself. Ensure that the gain of the amps is set to the same amount. Otherwise you will not be able to objectively evaluate the level of hiss between several amplifiers. The general rule is: the lower the level of hiss which you hear the higher the noise performance. If you favor an amp with a small level of hissing, you can look at the signal-to-noise ratio number of the spec sheet. Most suppliers will publish this number. Amps with a large signal-to-noise ratio will output a low level of static. There are a number of 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 make noise. The overall noise is dependent on how much hiss each element produces. Nonetheless, the position of these components is also vital. Components which are part of the amplifier input stage will normally contribute most of the noise.
Most of today's power amps are digital amplifiers, also known as "class-d amps". Class-D amps use a switching stage that oscillates at a frequency between 300 kHz to 1 MHz. This switching noise may cause some amount of speaker distortion but is generally not included in the the signal-to-noise ratio which only considers noise between 20 Hz and 20 kHz.
Manufacturers measure the signal-to-noise ratio by means of setting the amp such that the full output swing can be realized and by feeding a test signal to the amplifier which is normally 60 dB underneath the full scale of the amp. Subsequently, the noise floor between 20 Hz and 20 kHz is calculated and the ratio to the full-scale signal computed. The noise signal at other frequencies is eliminated through a bandpass filter throughout this measurement.
Time and again you will find the term "dBA" or "a-weighted" in your amp parameter sheet. A weighting is a method of expressing the noise floor in a more subjective fashion. This method was developed with the knowledge that human hearing perceives noise at different frequencies differently. Human hearing is most responsive to signals around 1 kHz. On the other hand, signals under 50 Hz and above 13 kHz are barely heard. The A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio is generally larger than the unweighted ratio and is shown in most amplifier spec sheets.
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