Download PDF Audio Power Amplifier Design by Douglas Self

Sinopsis

Audio power amplifiers are of considerable economic importance. They are built in their hundreds of thousands every year, and have a history extending back to the 1920s. It is therefore surprising there have been so few books dealing in any depth with solid-state power amplifier design.

The first aim of this text is to fill that need, by providing a detailed guide to the many design decisions that must be taken when a power amplifier is designed. The second aim is to disseminate the original work I have done on amplifier design in the last few years. The result of these investigations was to show that power amplifiers of extraordinarily low distortion could be designed as a matter of routine, without any unwelcome side-effects, so long as a relatively simple design methodology was followed. I have called these Blameless amplifiers, to emphasise that their excellent performance is obtained more by avoiding mistakes which are fairly obvious when pointed out, rather than by using radically new circuitry. The Blameless methodology is explained in detail in Chapters 4 and 5 in this book. My latest studies on compensation techniques have moved things on a step beyond Blameless. I hope that the techniques explained in this book have a relevance beyond power amplifiers. Applications obviously include discrete opamp-based pre-amplifiers,1 and extend to any amplifier aiming at static or dynamic precision.

Content

1. Amplifiers and The Audio Signal
2. The Basics of Distortion
3. Negative Feedback
4. Amplifier Architecture, Classes, and Variations
5. General Principles and Distortion Mechanisms
6. The Input Stage
7. The Voltage-Amplifier Stage
8. The Push-pull Voltage-Amplifier Stage
9. The Output Stage
10. Output Stage Distortions
11. More Distortion Mechanisms
12. Closely Observed Amplifiers: Design Examples
13. Compensation and Stability
14. Output Networks and Load Effects
15. Speed and Slew-rate
16. Power Dissipation in Amplifiers
17. Class-A Power Amplifiers
18. Class XD: Crossover Displacement
19. Class-G Power Amplifiers
20. Class-D Power Amplifiers
21. FET Output Stages.
22. Thermal Compensation and Thermal Dynamics
23. The Design of DC Servos
24. Amplifier and Loudspeaker Protection
25. Layout, Grounding, and Cooling
26. Power Supplies and PSRR
27. Power Amplifier Input Systems
28. Input Processing and Auxiliary Systems
29. Testing and Safety
30. Brief History of Solid-state Power Amplifiers

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