The difference between special power amplifier equipment and home power amplifier equipment

"Professional power amplifier equipment" is different from "home power amplifier equipment" because of the special requirements of its application (the same differences include playback equipment, front-end systems, speakers, etc.), but many friends do not understand "professional power amplifier" In the end, what is the essential difference between home and entertainment amplifiers? We collected some data and sorted them out, and talked with you about some of the characteristics of "professional amplifiers" that are different from home amplifiers, so that the majority of fans and practitioners who are new to audio will have A basic understanding.

I believe that many audio enthusiasts have seen the electrical schematic diagrams of professional power amplifiers and home power amplifiers. If you only look at the electrical schematics, it seems that there is no obvious difference between professional power amplifiers and home power amplifiers. From a functional point of view, both are used to drive speakers to play sound, which seems to be the same. In terms of performance indicators, the basic performance indicators of professional power amplifiers and general household power amplifiers are also similar. Although the characteristics of professional power amplifiers and household power amplifiers are very similar or even the same from the appearance of various "naked eye" characteristics, it cannot be denied that there are indeed many differences between professional power amplifiers and household power amplifiers that we can't see with the naked eye.

The basic requirement of a professional power amplifier is to work for a long time and continuously in a high-power state. Therefore, the professional power amplifier requires a large power margin, high reliability, low temperature rise of the output stage, and good circuit stability. To meet such requirements, amplifiers are different from household amplifiers in terms of design, materials, and production. For example, the capacity of the power supply of a professional power amplifier is often based on the actual consumption of the amplifier, plus sufficient margin, so the actual capacity of the power supply part is much larger than the household power of the same nominal power. The high-power components of professional power amplifiers often choose specifications with high current and withstand voltage higher than the rated value. The radiator of the output stage also tends to adopt large exposed radiators or active heat dissipation methods to facilitate heat dissipation and protection The temperature rise during long hours of work is low. If you look at professional power amplifiers and household power amplifiers whose additional output power is also 500W×2, you can clearly find that the radiator of professional power amplifiers is much larger. This is because although the home power amplifier has a nominal rated output power of 500W, it usually only works at a small output power in actual use (generally, the average power is about 50W). Only when the burst peak signal of certain music is broadcast, it is possible to reach an output power of tens of watts in a short period of time. Therefore, the actual workload of the output stage of the home power amplifier is very light. Professional power amplifiers with a rated output power of 500W often reach a critical state close to "full power" in actual use. The actual work load is heavier, so the output stage generates a lot of heat, and a larger radiator is needed to ensure Good heat dissipation.

From the perspective of amplifier design requirements, household amplifiers are often used in quieter home environments, usually for music viewing and movie playback. Home HI-FI power amplifiers are more to more realistically broadcast the "original sound" of music, requiring the ability to restore the level and details of the music. Therefore, home power amplifiers require higher sound fidelity, and require softer and softer sounds. Delicate and sweet. Professional power amplifiers are often used for sound reinforcement in large areas and used to drive professional speaker systems. Therefore, they require strong driving force, sufficient output power, clear sound, and sufficient strength. Therefore, the sound characteristics of the two are different. . However, some high-end professional power amplifiers also pay more attention to the fidelity of the playback sound. If matched with higher professional speakers, the sound will be clearer, too fine, and the sense of quality is better. Of course, the premise of this requirement is power. Yamato has high stability.

From the perspective of function settings, professional power amplifiers often work with front-end equipment such as mixers, so they are mostly pure rear-end amplifiers. The settings of professional amplifiers are very simple, often there are only power switches and output level adjustment potentiometers (or step attenuators) on the panel. And because of the actual needs of professional power amplifiers, it can often work in a two-channel stereo state, or become a mono amplifier after being "bridged", so professional power amplifiers are mostly equipped with a "bridge" switch. For household power amplifiers, many models are "combined" amplifiers with pre-amplifiers. This combined amplifier has more efficacies, often with audio source selection, boring control, and multiple audio input interfaces.

From the perspective of the working status of the amplifier, professional power amplifiers will pay more attention to the "efficiency" of the amplifier, so most of them are Class AB, Class H and emerging Class H amplifiers. With the development of switching power supply technology, some brands have developed very good ones. Class D power amplifier. Most household power amplifiers use class AB amplifiers, or "high-biased class AB" amplifiers, or basically do not consider "efficiency" class A amplifiers, and some even use dynamically biased "super class A" amplifiers. From the perspective of output power, professional power amplifiers tend to have relatively large output power, and the output power of a single unit is larger than 1000W per channel. The rated output power of household power amplifiers is mostly below 500W.

The above power amplifier is a constant resistance power amplifier, there is also a power amplifier: the output of the constant voltage power amplifier is marked with the nominal voltage output signal, generally 100V and 70V, as long as the load power is not overloaded, the output voltage is not affected by the load change It is usually equipped with a high-voltage output terminal, so the output transformer is included, and the sound quality (especially the bass) will be affected to a certain extent. But the high-voltage output is suitable for long-distance and large-area transmission, which reduces the line loss. Used in large shopping malls, background music, public broadcasting, airports, railway stations, docks, campus broadcasting, rural cable broadcasting, military barracks, etc.

Based on the above information, we can see that professional power amplifiers and home power amplifiers are two different students in the same class. It is recommended that when purchasing power amplifier equipment, we should find out exactly where the purchased power amplifier is used and what needs to be achieved. Features.