Digital Amplifiers Come of Age Algonquin IL

Have you ever watched the pros at the Amp Toss during the annual Installer Olympics at CEDIA EXPO? They grab a 78-pound metal box of iron, hoist it to shoulder level and with a great heave, use both arms to "throw" this clunky piece of electronics as far as they can. What if you could throw all the heavy amps out of your life forever? Now you can.

While the rest of the custom integrator's arsenal has made the jump to digital technology, the analog amplifier remains a relic of yesterday's know-how. Gone are vinyl LPs, replaced by CDs. Gone are analog tapes, replaced by DVDs. And going away are CRTs, replaced by DLP, LCD and plasma. In the audio arena, amplification is the last analog link in the digital audio chain.

Enter the digital amplifier. At less than one fifth the weight, one eighth the heat and one fourth the size of their analog ancestors, digital amplifiers offer substantial benefits to the custom integrator, especially to the installer who has to assemble and install the racks.

Those benefits come just in time. Both experience and market surveys show that distributed audio is the fastest growing segment of the residential systems market. Many homes now need 12-20 or more channels and buyers expect "digital" quality from all electronics.

Home theater software is moving from five channels, to six and seven channels. If you attended Russ Hershelmann's or Dr. Floyd Toole's classes at CEDIA, you heard them--and others--advocate seven channels of audio. At the same time, the market's appetite for power is growing. Whereas 100 watts per channel sufficed last year, it's 120 watts this year and quickly growing to 150 or more.

We all know that speakers are getting smaller, but smaller speakers are less efficient. Yes, you can get good performance from a small speaker, but they require more power.

All of this adds to the demand for greater power density, which only digital amplifiers can deliver. While old analog amplifiers burn off up to 50 percent of their power in heat, well designed digital amplifiers are more than 93 percent efficient. When the demand for power increases to 150 watts per channel, analog amps will no longer be able to draw enough power from 120-volt wall socket to meet the demand. So while it's a struggle of physics to get 1,000 watts from an analog amplifier, the digital amplifier can deliver 1,500 to 2,000 watts or more.

In addition to total power, residential systems customers want fewer and smaller components. A slim, silver, quality 100-watt-per-channel DVD receiver is an ideal match for a plasma display and in-wall speakers. This "lifestyle" trend in components will continue to grow and digital amplifiers will play an integral part of this movement.

With any new technology, quality is the result of smart innovation and exceptional engineering. While Class-D amplifiers have been a novelty in most markets for many years, true analog-equivalent performance has been difficult and costly to achieve. Custome...

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