How you can measure an amplifier?

[samsagaz]

Hey guys, i always was interested in audio products, here in Argentina we dont have too much money and diferents brands to test, i just want to know what ppl use to say THIS AMP is better than THIS AMP.

dont know if understand what im saying, but i just dont undertstand very well how compare 2 diferents amps.

For example one Ultra High End amplifier 100Watts Mono can cost 1500USD, and an chinese one of 250Watts can cost the 3rd part, and i think that 1 Watt is 1 Watt in both amps, and maybe the chinese one will move better the speakers than the 100Watts One.....

well, i just try to figure what i need to know to say " this amp is better than this"
Regards

[sakis]

simply need to find an audio glossary

there is a million of terms and million of definations to determine if this amplifier is better than the other one

S/N ratio ,power, rms power, damping factor , slew rate , frequency responce , bandwidth,headroom ....and a lot more ....

and ofcourse listening impressions like sonics ( favourite word of Destroyer X ) to my opinion also very very importand ,then brilliance in high and/or tight bass and goes on

to experts and not all these complete the picture and make audible diference between amplifiers

but actually there is no rules....there is a very good possibility that a simply made amp with a litle bit of good construction will outperform comercially made amp for breakfast .....

there is very good explanation for that

DIY amps have less protection methods on them .... they are mostly made focused in the quality of sound ...... meaning that many of these amplifiers if abused or seriouslly pussed by an inexpirienced user will fail with dramatic results ......

[destroyer X]

ampere value by your local mains voltage...then you will have the consumption:

for example:

Fuse found was 1 ampere and your mains voltage is 110 volts

Power is voltage multiplied by current...so... 110 is the maximum consumption power....audio is half of that...so, this example amplifier can produce, maximum of 55 watts (sligtly more than that)...this is easy to evaluate this way.

But other specifications are hard to evaluate by numbers.... need to listen... this is the problem.... not easy to listen all amplifiers inside your own selection or price and quality... sadly numbers do not say absolutelly nothing.... listening, the one with pretty good numbers sometimes sounds worse than other with bad numbers.

As amplifiers are sold because power...the higher the power the higher the price... at least you can obtain the real power value..we cannot know how it distorts to produce this power... only listening to them.

This kind of evaluation do not works to digital class D amplifiers that has 95 percent, or more, of eficiency and do not works to class A amplifiers, or automatic class A to AB amplifiers.

But works to the majority of world amplifiers that are designed to operate class AB

regards,

Carlos