Audio amp classes as fast as possible!

Comments · 908

• GO

  @GoldenSound · 1 year ago · pinned

  Apologies for not including this in the video itself, but the main advantage for class D amps is that they can be made EXTREMELY efficiently, whilst also having extremely low distortion.<br><br>Class D amps are always either fully &apos;on&apos; or fully &apos;off&apos;. Meaning they&apos;re either outputting efficiently or using basically no power. This means that class D amps can sometimes be 90-95% efficient, vs the 40-80% efficiency of class AB and the maximum 50% of class A.<br><br>This makes them really suitable for situations where massive power is needed but an enormous class AB amp would not be feasible. Such as for subwoofers or car audio. You hardly need any heat dissipation and so a very powerful class D amp can be made to be extremely compact.<br><br>The main disadvantages are that they inherently generate a huge amount of high frequency noise which must be filtered out, and many class D amps are also load dependent, meaning the filter response will change depending on the impedance of the connected load.<br>For speakers this is not really an issue as you know everything will be roughly 8 Ohms. But for headphones where it could be anywhing from ~12 Ohm to 600 Ohm, that&apos;s a more difficult challenge.<br><br>For that reason, and since we don&apos;t really &apos;need&apos; the efficiency for headphone amps anyway which don&apos;t use much power, class D is rarely seen in headphone amps.

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• ME

  @metal571 · 1 year ago

  If only my EE professors in college explained things even remotely this clearly. Fabulous presentation

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• NO

  @nosThof · 1 year ago

  Finally understood. There is a bird in my amp and when I listen too loud it dies. Gotcha

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• BF

  @bfolkens · 1 year ago

  Wow - this was the best explanation I’ve ever seen for amp types 🤯

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• AN

  @AndreiIsa-kk9jz · 1 year ago

  No one, and I mean no one has explained this better for a person to understand how sound is manipulated by different class amplification. I think it is very easy to understand once you get to the 3rd time watching the video. :)

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• MR

  @MrSatyre1 · 10 months ago

  As a former audio manufacturer who was one of the very first to bring Class D to multichannel home theater solutions, thank you for clearly saying PWM instead of the dreaded (and completely different) &quot;digital&quot; word.

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• SI

  @siberx4 · 1 year ago

  This is a great explanation of the main amplifier types, but it glosses over <i>why</i> you&apos;d go to the trouble of using a Class D amplifier since it sounds more complicated to implement.<br><br>The answer, of course, is that they can be vastly more efficient than even a well-tuned Class AB. This is because transistors waste extremely little power when they&apos;re either in their fully off or fully on states, while a transistor in its linear region acts somewhat like a variable resistor and dumps the waste energy as heat. Since a Class D amplifier only ever has the transistor fully off (where it wastes no power) or fully on (where it also wastes nearly no power since it&apos;s extremely low-resistance) there&apos;s very low loss overall.<br><br>Class A amplifiers are usually 25% efficient or less (somewhat higher is possible with tricks), while AB designs are 40-80% efficient. Class D, on the other hand, is usually 80-90% efficient, with even higher values possible.<br><br>As such, Class D amplifiers can be absolutely tiny and, if well designed, still produce shockingly good sound. It took a while for the designs and implementations to get good enough to avoid distortions or other issues inherent with trying to keep the complicated harmonic-filled output under control, but nowadays you can get dozens of watts (or more) out of something the size of a deck of playing cards with very few compromises.<br><br>Purists will insist on linear designs, but a well-designed Class D amplifier can produce excellent audio and allows much more compact designs because the reduced waste power. This is especially important where space is at a premium (such as in small apartments) or in portable applications powered by batteries.

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• JI

  @jibeji · 1 year ago

  As a former electronics engineer, this is the best explanation ever! I wish I had a such explanation during my studies 😀

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• SM

  @smolbo1 · 1 year ago

  need more of these videos. so tired of everyone that just says &quot;but that is a topuc for another video&quot; but never get another one. educational content to educate the consumers have a much better effect than giving opinions in reviews

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• GE

  @geardawg1358 · 1 year ago

  Nicely done, in my 50+ years of electronics I&apos;ve not heard a more accurate easily comprehended explanation! I&apos;d say if more had your knack for instruction the world in which we live would have a much higher rate of proficiency. You&apos;ve actually made the learning process much less boring! &nbsp;I started my learning process when I was 13 YO, you remind me of the fellow I learned from, he was a 75 YO USNavy EW tech!

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• JP

  @JpdeVilliers-l3t · 1 year ago

  Still no idea whats going on, but i love the visual animations.

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• PR

  @prodbyhajime · 1 year ago

  Actual gem of a series this was

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