Talk:Audio amplifier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the Professional sound production WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the technology, equipment, companies and professions related to professional sound production. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale.


Contents

[edit] Transistor amplifiers

Practical transistor amplifiers were not only due to cheap solid state devices but early transistors also had issues with mid-band gain, alot of this issues were first cataloged by RCA (see specifically the work of Larry Giacoletto) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mattpalmer84 (talk • contribs) 2006-04-18T07:27:24.

[edit] Levels and comparisons

I'd like to edit the introduction of this article because it makes what I believe are two mistakes.

  • (Refering to an amplifier's low power input levels) By "low power" it is meant that the signals are usually limited to those required to drive headphones (less than 500 mW).

The input stages to most audio amplifiers are designed to handle signals weaker then headphone levels. Most audio amplifiers require their inputs to satisfy line level signal levels.

  • While the input signal may be only a few hundred millivolts, the power amplifier's output may have a power of many watts.

This sentence mixes incompatible units: volts and watts. I think "millivolts" should be changed to "milliwatts".

— Ke6jjj 18:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. An audio amplifier connected to a phonograph's magnetic cartridge receives mere microwatts. Using terms like "low" and "high" should probably be avoided altogether: look at what happened with the RF band names: very high, super high, etc. — EncMstr 20:25, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Main page?

should this be the main page on audio amplifiers from which all other articles on audio amps fork off?--Light current 22:31, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Audiophile bias

There are times when EQ might work: low SPL listening (fletcher-munson), bad mixing, achieving flat response to 20 hz. Many homes contain carpet and furniture which changes the power response. I would agree that an EQ, preamp, amp, should ideally be separate.

EQ is almost mandatory in dense apartments; I used to get complaints from 6.5" B&W speakers.172.132.137.91 08:02, 22 April 2007 (UTC)