Agreed, Al's post was lucid & well-written for most people to understand this technical subject.
Just a small addendum - as far as specs are concerned, the higher the slew rate the better. Slew rate can also be thought of as the rate at which the amp can charge a capacitor i.e. besides the units of Volts/microsecond, slew rate has equivalent units of Amperes/Farad. Thus, slew rate can give you an idea of the robustness of the ampilifier's power supply. For difficult to drive speakers, amps with higher slew rates generally do better as their power supplies can provide more current.
(current is not the only requirement for hard to drive speakers, one also needs wattage which provides the max possible output voltage swing. So, one needs both watts & current for hard to drive speakers & that's what makes these amps very large chassis units).
Higher slew rate amps generally cost more as more robust power supplies are not cheap in parts or labour.
As alluded by Al, slew rate & bandwidth are inter-related: if you view slew rate in its dual definition as the ability to charge a capacitor, that current is related to gain of the amplifier stage & in turn, the gain of the amplifier stage & the total capacitance in that amplifier stage defines the bandwidth. So, higher slew rates, higher current generally yield wider bandwidth (or "faster") amps.
Just a small addendum - as far as specs are concerned, the higher the slew rate the better. Slew rate can also be thought of as the rate at which the amp can charge a capacitor i.e. besides the units of Volts/microsecond, slew rate has equivalent units of Amperes/Farad. Thus, slew rate can give you an idea of the robustness of the ampilifier's power supply. For difficult to drive speakers, amps with higher slew rates generally do better as their power supplies can provide more current.
(current is not the only requirement for hard to drive speakers, one also needs wattage which provides the max possible output voltage swing. So, one needs both watts & current for hard to drive speakers & that's what makes these amps very large chassis units).
Higher slew rate amps generally cost more as more robust power supplies are not cheap in parts or labour.
As alluded by Al, slew rate & bandwidth are inter-related: if you view slew rate in its dual definition as the ability to charge a capacitor, that current is related to gain of the amplifier stage & in turn, the gain of the amplifier stage & the total capacitance in that amplifier stage defines the bandwidth. So, higher slew rates, higher current generally yield wider bandwidth (or "faster") amps.
