"Class" makes difference for Amps?

sgmane

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Hi,

I require some clarifications on the below mentioned information (I did go through some site - dont remember now).

Class A - always run hot,least efficient, lowest distortion
Class A/B - 50% efficient. distortion (i have no idea)
Class D - most efficient (but used in high end applications and very recently in "digital" amplifiers). distortion (i have no idea)

Oh!! yet again "digital" amps. - can any of you give me some models on this so that i shall also check the same?

Well i have no other information, but i understand when mentioned above as "efficient" i mean the performance (I may be wrong too!).
Has any of you experienced with these type of Classes? Does it really make (much) difference?

Oh!! Iam no audiophile. So on layman's interest iam only looking at when i go for buying a budget amp, what should i look into?

Can you folks shed some light on this?
 
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budget amplifiers dont come in class a or class d. dont worry about classes when buying the amplifier. listen to the amps and buy what you feel sounds best when paired to your speakers
 
Efficiency is used to measure how much input power is converted to audio power...thats all! It has nothing to do with

Going from Class A where more power is lost as heat dissipation than as audio power, to class AB to D where least power is dissipated as heat.

this has nothing to do with distortion and or how they sound.

cheers


Hi,

I require some clarifications on the below mentioned information (I did go through some site - dont remember now).

Class A - always run hot,least efficient, lowest distortion
Class A/B - 50% efficient. distortion (i have no idea)
Class D - most efficient (but used in high end applications and very recently in "digital" amplifiers). distortion (i have no idea)

Oh!! yet again "digital" amps. - can any of you give me some models on this so that i shall also check the same?

Well i have no other information, but i understand when mentioned above as "efficient" i mean the performance (I may be wrong too!).
Has any of you experienced with these type of Classes? Does it really make (much) difference?

Oh!! Iam no audiophile. So on layman's interest iam only looking at when i go for buying a budget amp, what should i look into?

Can you folks shed some light on this?
 
"Class" is a design..it is the Implementation whch makes an amp good. there are ClassA/B which sound Better than Classs A and Vice versa !

So better not to decide by the topology/design. in the end it is the implementation which matters the most !

while well designed Pure Class As can be very low on Switchover distortion, the power is limited but due to the heat dissipation the coponent quality is higher and so higher cost. so unless you have a sensitive speaker you may not like it too much. But very well designed A/Bs also can be low on distortion, though the cost to achieve this may be higher
 
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Hello

From What i heard , they say that Class A amplifier sounds better then others , i dont know how far this is true. I heard the Musical fidelity A1 ( the latest one ) Class A amplifier . You can do lot better for that kind of money , Even a mid end amplifier sounded far more better then the Class A MF A1

regards
 
MF has been mostly producing junk of late. Their golden days are over. Plus their gear is voiced in a way that you either like them or you don't. If you don't, just move on. I have a vintage A1 and I think its hard to do better for such little money.
 
Class A and A/B amps are less efficient but are full range (meaning they can drive all speakers and frequencies) most times while using a single toroidal transformer.

Class D amps are very efficient but they typically do not drive the mids and highs very well. They are generally used to drive the subwoofers.

There are also class H amplifiers that are way more efficient and tends to be cool even when driven hard for long periods of time. The unique thing about D and H amps are that they need to have discrete transformers for each amp module.

For example, for a 7 channel amp, there would be 7 separate power modules driving each channel.

Price increases from A - H while loudnes and sound stage increases from A - H assuming they are driven the same way.

So for a 350VA toroid power transformers with corresponding capacitors, class A will have a better soundstage than D or H.
 
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