The Audio Power Amplifier

Young male car owners usually like to display power in many aspects of their car’s features. In the car engine the available horsepower serves as a measure of the engine’s power. In the audio power amplifier the efficiency serves as the important measure of power and of quality. A well-performing, a powerful amplifier has a high efficiency.

The efficiency of an audio power amplifier can be calculated by simply determining a ratio. The efficiency is the ratio of power input to power output. The power input comes from the car battery. The power output represents the strength of the signal that is going to the car’s speaker system. An amplifier salesman might characterize an audio power amplifier by its RMS, its root mean square; this is the amplifier’s average power input.

The output from an audio power amplifier normally comes through a number of different channels. The purchaser of an audio power amplifier should ask the salesman to define the range of channels that carry the amplifier’s output. The salesman would probably give a figure no lower than one and no higher than eight.

The purchaser of an audio power amplifier might also inquire about the availability of extra features. For example, if an audio power amplifier has built-in active crossovers, then the amplifier can divide the music by frequency. This feature would send low frequency sounds to the subwoofer, and it would send high frequency sounds to the car speakers.

Equalizers also serve as a desirable added feature for an audio power amplifier. The equalizer introduces tone control into the car stereo system. The car owner normally sets the equalizer at a point where the amplifier output produces the most desirable acoustics. When a car owner has a properly-set equalizer, then the occupants of the car enjoy listening to an acoustically-blended sound.