lets talk amp technology

[gregshin]

Okay to my knowledge there is 3 types of technology used to power amps.

1.) Vaccum Tube
2.) Mosfet
3.) Digital

What is the pros and cons of each? I currently have a vaccum tube amp and i love the rich WARM sound that comes from my speakers. I was wondering if digital can hold a candle against the vaccum tube?

 

[yoda291]

hrm...I'm torn between being a thread nazi and saying goto HT, or letting it slide...since I'm eating a pizza and drinking 7up, I'm gonna let you slide.

and I like my vacuum very much...too bad I think it killed my speakers.

 

[chiwawa626]

Highly Technical would be a better forum for this...in OT we talk about girls, cars, food, and other usless randomness.

 

[OS]

digital amp technology is mainly used in subwoofer amps, I haven't seen any applications anywhere else.

The main benefit of class D amps is very high efficiency, around 85-90% so they run very cool compared to traditional amplifiers. Downside is that the technology and internal switching frequencies aren't high enough yet for higher audio frequencies. This will probably change in the future.

ed, I guess there are speaker class D amps. Man technology changes so fast.

 

[spidey07]

Tube pros - they clip softly meaning less distortion. Their distortion is even-order harmonics instead of odd lending to a more pleasing sound. Even power no matter what the speaker impedance.
Tube cons - require replacement and biasing, expensive for a lot of power, can "color" your music

MOSFET (and I'm lumping this into a category called Solid-State)
Pros - gobs of power for not to much money, very linear operating frequencty range.
Cons - Odd order harmonic distotion is unpleasing to the ears, clip hard, expensive to drive low impedance loads, switching operation Class A, Class B, Class D, etc can add or eliminate switching distortion.

Never heard a digital amp.

Some day soon I'll be adding a tube amplifier to my martin logan electrostatic panels and bi-amping with my current solid state mono blocks for the woofer. Should be super smooth and super sweet. Best of both worlds.

 

[Acanthus]

winamp?

sorry i had to say it im so bored.

 

[kt]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Tube pros - they clip softly meaning less distortion. Their distortion is even-order harmonics instead of odd lending to a more pleasing sound. Even power no matter what the speaker impedance.
Tube cons - require replacement and biasing, expensive for a lot of power, can "color" your music

MOSFET (and I'm lumping this into a category called Solid-State)
Pros - gobs of power for not to much money, very linear operating frequencty range.
Cons - Odd order harmonic distotion is unpleasing to the ears, clip hard, expensive to drive low impedance loads, switching operation Class A, Class B, Class D, etc can add or eliminate switching distortion.

Never heard a digital amp.

Some day soon I'll be adding a tube amplifier to my martin logan electrostatic panels and bi-amping with my current solid state mono blocks for the woofer. Should be super smooth and super sweet. Best of both worlds.

I think he meant Class-D amp which you already summarized under solid-state amp.

 

[spidey07]

Yeah, but there are a few true digital amplifiers out there now.

http://www.puredigitalaudio.org/digitalamplifiers/index.shtml

It is very new technology where there isn't actually a DA converter in the chain. Looks very promising.