The Alexander Amplifier
in Power amplifiers, Technical
Mark Alexander’s eponymous creation was an early example of a high performance CFA amplifier and used an ADI integrated opamp and IGBT output devices in a novel circuit configuration that, at the time, yielded vanishingly low distortion and blistering speed. The ‘Alexander’ amplifier has been recycled by practitioners numerous times since its initial publication with […]
12 point checklist for anyone using opamps in an audio design
in Preamplifiers, Technical
Opamp User Guide V1.0.pdf
An Overview Of SID and TIM, Walt Jung et al
in Power amplifiers, Technical
This series of articles on TIM and SID (and subsequent AES paper), were authored by Walter G. Jung and published between 1977 and 1979 in ‘The Audio Amateur’. It should be read in the context of amplifier design as it stood in the late 1970’s: a clear understanding of the mechanism was only just beginning […]
Hifisonix Solid State Loudspeaker Relay
in Power amplifiers, Technical
On big power amplifiers, conventional electromechanical relays leave much to be desired when it comes to their ability to reliably switch fault level currents in the event of a catastrophic amplifier fault. In a worst case situation (and I speak from experience), one of the output devices fails short circuit, placing the full amplifier rail voltage across the loudspeaker terminals. Relay […]
Opamp Noise Visualizer
in Preamplifiers, Technical
This Excel spread sheet tool was developed from one by Steve Hagman (www.AnalogHome.com) and allows en and ien data for up to 7 opamps to be compared. When using the tool, make sure you enter comparable data – so for example, always use the same frequency to make the comparison. I normally use 1 kHz […]
Tom D Kite Busts Some Audio Myths!
in Technical
Ever wondered how we got to ‘feedback is bad’, ‘ . . . sampling destroys the music’ or ‘ . . . analog is 40 bits resolution . . .’ , ‘we need damping factors of 1000’ and ‘ . . . only vinyl sounds good’ ? Tom D Kite PhD, of Audio Precision, takes […]