ABSTRACT
Power amplifi ers are uneventful devices. They are usually big and heavy, take up a lot of rack space, and feature very little (or sometimes nothing) beyond input and output sockets. Because one tends to ignore them, it is all the more important that they are chosen and used with due care. Coming in a variety of shapes, sizes and ‘ generations ’ , they are all required to do the ostensibly simple job of providing voltage amplifi cation – converting line levels of up to a volt or so into several tens of volts, with output currents in the ampere range to develop the necessary power across the loudspeaker
Domestic Power Amplifi ers 342 Professional Amplifi er Facilities 344 Specifi cations 345
Sensitivity 345 Power output 346 Frequency response 347 Distortion 348 Crosstalk 349 Signal-to-noise ratio 349 Impedance 349 Damping factor 350 Phase response 350
Coupling 351
terminals. Given these few requirements, it is perhaps surprising how many designs there are on the market.
