Various Insights In Order To Help Comprehend The Noise Performance Of Today's Stereo Amplifiers

By Sherry Lambert


Are you searching to acquire a new amplifier for your home loudspeakers? You may be dazzled by the amount of alternatives you have. In order to make an informed choice, it is best to familiarize yourself with popular terms. One of these specifications is known as "signal-to-noise ratio" and is not frequently understood. I am going to help clarify the meaning of this expression.

When looking for an amplifier, you firstly are going to check the cost, power among additional basic criteria. Yet, after this initial choice, you are going to still have quite a few models to choose from. Now you are going to focus more on a number of of the technical specifications, such as signal-to-noise ratio in addition to harmonic distortion. Every amp will generate a certain amount of hiss and hum. The signal-to-noise ratio will help compute the amount of static generated by the amplifier.

To help you compare the noise performance, amp producers publish the signal-to-noise ratio in their amplifier spec sheets. Simply put, the larger the signal-to-noise ratio, the smaller the level of noise the amp produces. Noise is created due to several reasons. One factor is that modern amplifiers all utilize elements such as transistors along with resistors. Those components will produce some amount of hiss. The overall noise is dependent on how much hiss each element generates. However, the position of those components is also vital. Components which are part of the amplifier input stage will normally contribute most of the noise.

In order to help you compare the noise performance, amp makers publish the signal-to-noise ratio in their amp specification sheets. Simply put, the larger the signal-to-noise ratio, the lower the amount of noise the amp generates. There are numerous reasons why power amps is going to add some form of hiss or other unwanted signal. Transistors and resistors that are part of each modern amplifier by nature generate noise. Because the amplifier overall noise performance is mostly determined by the performance of elements located at the amplifier input, makers are going to try to select low-noise parts whilst designing the amp input stage.

Manufacturers measure the signal-to-noise ratio by setting the amplifier such that the full output swing may be realized and by feeding a test tone to the amp that is generally 60 dB underneath the full scale of the amp. Next, only the hiss in the range of 20 Hz and 20 kHz is considered. The noise at other frequencies is eliminated by a filter. Then the amount of the noise energy in relation to the full-scale output wattage is computed and expressed in db.

Frequently you are going to discover the term "dBA" or "a-weighted" in your amplifier spec sheet. A weighting is a technique of expressing the noise floor in a more subjective way. In other words, this method attempts to state how the noise is perceived by a human being. Human hearing is most perceptive to signals around 1 kHz while signals under 50 Hz and above 14 kHz are hardly noticed. An A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio weighs the noise floor according to the human hearing and is generally larger than the unweighted signal-to-noise ratio.




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