The Future of Audio Amplification

I spend a lot of time in research how our emotion works regarding music.

When you compare different amps who play in Class A, AB, D or G they still are different regarding the aspects/properties of sound. And most still are not able to reveal all the different aspects/properties of sound.

When you look inside the most new amps of all different brands. The facts proof that manufacturers are using cheaper parts these days. When a market is decreasing you need to find a way to make your products still profitable.

So they start to use cheaper parts, and this is what we see now in almost all new amps. When we audition them most of them create a very limited level in diversity (layering) in sound.

This means you can sit in your chair and even after 4 months you still have never felt any kind of emotion of your music. For us as music lovers it is sad to see that how poor most products are these days.

The manufacturers have not the insight and knowledge to create better products so more people would become interested in new audio products. When we go to an audio show I am with my 46 years of age one of the more young people overthere.

It is 5 before 12 and we are aware that something has to change. Trial and error is also responsible for the fact that audio is a decreasing market. The facts proof that the quality people can get by trial and error is very limited.

dear  guidocorona,

the truth is hard. But is needed to change something what is limited.

Electrolytic caps aren't famous for having exceptionally low ESR, but they're the only technology that's compact enough to provide the current capacity required. The sub-optimal ESR leads to internal heating of the capacitor. The heat dries them out, the ESR rises, that causes them to make more heat, they begin leaking electrically, and they eventually just short out and start frying silicon.

David Bernnig used a switching supply in his TF-10 preamp which was made in the early 1980s IIRC. I have a customer in town with one of those and it has the original filter caps in place- very much alive after all these years. He seems to have sorted it out- those filter caps run cold to the touch. The first statement in the above quote is false- electrolytics are the only technology that's compact enough to provide the **storage** capacity required, not current. 


SMPSs don't need a lot of capacity because the switching frequency is so much higher. This means that a much smaller capacitor can be employed than in a 60Hz supply. I know some SMPSs did have some problems in the early part of the 2000s, mostly on account of some Chinese caps that were failing not because of switching frequency so much as the parts were just plain defective.

There’s a huge difference between a pre-amp and a power amp.

Correct, two different active Class-D subs and one SR reciever I’ve had on my HT system, have eventually blown their smp caps, and in a chain reaction taken out the class-d amp as well, luckily new plate amps were available, and at trade price, just cost effective to repair for myself only, no way for a customer, they would maybe have been better of as Ricev’s said junking it and buying a new one.

Cheers George