Choosing a good audio amplifier for your speakers is not a trivial chore. You want to make sure that your amplifier matches your speakers. I will clarify some essential amplifier language and give some suggestions to aid you select the perfect amplifier.

It is hard to pick the right audio amplifier due to the large quantity of types. All of these models have different specs. They are based on different technologies and are available in all kinds of shapes and sizes. By following some easy guidelines, you will be able to select the type that best fits your application and resources.

A important criterion is the size of the amplifier. You can purchase models that can fill half a room. In contrast, a few of the latest miniature amplifier types are no bigger than a deck of cards. Various amplifiers are rack sized. This permits them to be stacked on top of your other audio equipment.

The vast majority of recent audio amplifiers are solid state amplifiers vs more conventional tube amplifiers. Tube amplifiers have been prevalent a decade or so ago. Tube amplifiers, though, have a relatively large amount of harmonic distortion. Harmonic distortion describes how much the audio signal is degraded whilst being amplified. This term is frequently used while comparing the audio quality of amps.

An audio distortion of up to 10% is normal for tube amplifiers while solid-state amps have less audio distortion depending on the particular technology. Some of the most popular technologies in the past have been “Class-A” and “Class-AB” technologies. These technologies use different arrangements to amplify the sound. Amplifiers based on any of these technologies are also known as “analog amplifiers”. This technology offers rather low audio distortion. Though, the power efficiency is merely 10 to 30%. Power efficiency describes how much of the electrical power is utilized to amplify the audio versus being wasted as heat. Amps with low power efficiency will require quite big heat sinks since most of the power is radiated.

Another technology is known as “Class-D”. This technology offers much higher power efficiency than analog amplifiers, normally around 80 to 90%. “Class-D” amplifiers are also named “digital amplifiers”. The tradeoff is that digital amps often have higher audio distortion than analog amplifiers. This is for the most part a result of the switching distortion of the output power stage. Newest digital audio amplifiers, however, employ a feedback mechanism and can reduce the audio distortion to below 0.05%.

Your amplifier should deliver sufficient power to drive your loudspeakers. The amount of power will depend on the power handling rating of your loudspeakers. An additional factor is the size of your space. There are two values for speaker power handling: peak and average power handling. The peak value indicates how much power the speaker can handle for short periods of time. The average value on the other hand describes how much power the loudspeaker can tolerate constantly without harm.

If you have a rather small listening environment then 20 to 50 Watts of power should be sufficient even though your loudspeaker may be rated for 100 Watts or higher. Loudspeakers on the other hand differ in their impedance and sensitivity. As a rule of thumb loudspeakers with low impedance offer higher sensitivity. High-sensitivity speakers are simpler to drive to high volume than low-sensitivity speakers. Not all amps can drive every speaker impedance. Find out the impedance of your speaker which is given in Ohms. Then look at your amplifier manual to make sure that your amp can drive this impedance.

Two other essential parameters to look at when picking an amplifier are signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response. Signal-to-noise ratio describes how much noise the amplifier will generate and should be at least 100 dB for a high-quality amplifier. The frequency response reveals which audio frequency range the amp covers and should be at least 20 Hz to 20 kHz.