Class A bias, speaker sensitivity, watts...?


Hello

Please help me understand the relationship between Class A bias and wattage output. I recently bought a used Vincent Audio SV236MK used for a great price. The specs state 150 watts into 8 ohms, 250 into 4 ohms, and the first 10 watts being Class A @ 8 ohms.

My speakers are Sonus Faber Lumina II which are rated as 4 Ohm with 86db sensitivity. Everything is set up in my small cube shaped office. I used a DB meter on my iPhone and found that when I turn the volume up to what I consider to be "loud" the peak measurement I get is 80db and under.

 

Given the specs above, am I hearing mostly/all Class A watts while listening?

craigvmn

@tomcy6

Not my understanding at all! The relationship that requires double the power when impedance is halved applies to all amplifiers of all classes.

Solid state amplifiers exhibit an anomaly at the crossover point from +ve to -ve output voltage. Class A amplifiers avoid this anomaly by keeping entirely on one side of it, let’s say the +ve side. To do this, the input voltage is DC offset (biased) to ensure the output never goes -ve.

There are a couple of consequences - a lot of output power is wasted as heat, and the input power consumed is constant whatever the audio output power. My Krell consumes about 700-Watts all the time and has huge fins to get rid of the excess heat.

A class AB amplifier on the other hand does allow the output to go -ve, at a point determined by the bias voltage applied. The idea is that the cross-over anomaly occurs when there is some musical content, and won’t be as obvious as when playing near silence.

Your amplifier manufacturer may be saying that his class AB amplifiers go into the crossover zone at much lower power when feeding 4-Ohms, compared with 8-Ohms. In this case, class A power would be defined as the most power the amplifier can deliver before reaching the crossover zone.

Seems to me that his AB amplifiers do not really have enough current delivery capacity in reserve, at least on paper! It would be interesting to ask what AB power they can deliver into 8-Ohms, and into 4-Ohms. Ideally it would be double, even if the pure class A numbers take a nosedive

@richardbrand

Yes it would be interesting to hear from some high bias Class A/B amp builders whether their amps switch over to Class B power sooner as speaker impedance drops. Maybe I just misunderstood.

@tomcy6

I've been trying to think of the physics that may be responsible.  When an AB amplifier is in Class A. the bias voltage is sufficient to accommodate the signal swings.  If the impedance of the speaker drops, more current is needed to keep the output voltage at the right level, but the current also tends to make the voltage drop.  I'll surmise that if the amplifier cannot keep up with the current demand, the bias voltage could drop sufficiently to actually reduce the Class A power.

According to Stereophile, the OP's Vincent Audio SV236MK measured 150-Watts into 8-Ohms and 231 in 4-Ohms.  It is specified at 10-Watts Class A into 8-Ohms but not specified into 4-Ohms.  Pity!

@richardbrand

There is only one number given for Class A watts that I’ve seen, which is why it stuck with me when the guy said they dropped into 4 ohms. It’s nothing to spend your time on, If someone who knows for sure comes across this thread maybe we’ll find out, but until then, forget I mentioned it.