
However, there’s a limit to how much power your speakers candle. The more power it outputs, the louder you’re able to get. The entire purpose of amplifiers is to make things loud and they achieve this by directing more power to our speakers and head units. This means that the output transistors do not retain any electricity and hence there isn’t any excess that can be converted to heat.

Class DĬlass D amplifiers are the most efficient (90% to 95%) which has a lot to do with the fact that when they’re off, they’re truly off. Hence, you get both the signal purity of Class A and the power efficiency of Class B. The Class B chain contains biasing diodes which eliminate any distortion from the signal path. Class A/BĬlass A/B circuits combine elements from both Class A and Class B, offering the best of both worlds. The biggest drawback of Class B circuits is that they tend to produce slightly distorted signals. This brings up the efficiency level to around 70%. Class BĬompared to Class A, Class B circuits only conduct electricity around 50% of the time. The biggest advantage of Class A amplifiers is that they produce the purest signal. Hence, Class A amplifiers can overheat with prolonged use. This is because only a small amount of the current produced will be utilized by speakers and any other device connected to the amplifier. Here’s a brief summary of how efficiency varies between the classes: Class AĬlass A circuits conduct electricity 100% of the time which unfortunately leads to a lot of wastage. The biggest difference between each class is efficiency, which in this context is a measure of how much Alternating Current (AC) can be supplied by an amplifier while consuming the least amount of Direct Current (DC) possible. You’ll see why! Amplifier ClassĪmplifiers belong to different classes with the most popular ones being: A, B, A/B and D. This is the kind of stuff that our eyes usually skim over when we’re reading product descriptions but in this case, they’re important to know about. The key is to familiarize yourself with a few important technical specifications such as the class, power output, impedance, sensitivity…etc.

After a couple of days with each (connected to my own car audio setup), I managed to shortlist them down to a top five, each of which I’ve reviewed below: Best Mono Block Amplifiers A Simple Buying Guide for Amplifiersīefore we get to the reviews, let’s talk a bit about how you might go about finding the best amplifier for yourself – one that not only suits your audio needs but is also compatible with current car setup. This year, I had the pleasure of trying out 15 of the best mono block amplifiers currently in the market. Hence, they’re designed to be paired with subwoofers, which require much more power than regular speakers. Monoblock amplifiers are one-channel units that output a ton of power.
