amplifiers and superlatives - next-tube.pdf

Amplifiers and Superlatives An Examination of American Claims for Improving Linearity and Efficiency By D. T. N. WILLIAMSON and P. J. WALKER Recent articles, particularly in the United States, have shown that some confusion of thought exists about the goodness of an amplifier for reproducing sound. This has been accompanied by a debasement of the terms used to describe the properties of an amplifier; words that have a precise meaning when standing alone become meaningless when qualified by superlatives. This article, which starts with a discussion of what constitutes a good amplifier, attempts to clear up some misconceptions and generally to clarify the position. The most commonly specified parameter of an frequency transients occur in amplifiers with output amplifier is its harmonic distortion or intermediations stages of the self-biased Class AB type, causing serious content, and this has tended to be regarded as the pri- distortion, which is not revealed by steady-state meas- mary standard of goodness. In 1944, one of the writers urements. The transient causes the current in the output suggested that a standard of 0.1 per cent total harmonic stage to rise, and this is followed, at a rate determined by distortion at maximum output was a good level of per- the time-constant of the formance to aim at. Such a low distortion content is biasing network, by a rise in bias voltage which alters readily achievable by modern design methods, and is, in the effective gain of the amplifier. fact, undetectable by listening tests, however refined. (5) Low output resistance. This requirement is This arbitr