Getting your amplifier choice right is critical to creating up a good quality system. It will be flexible enough for you to listen to all of the musical sources you have and few you might add later; and it will form the central hub of your listening experience.
Choosing an amplifier can be a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be. If you know what an amplifier does, the different types you can choose from, and have a few clear ideas on how to start looking (or listening), the job gets a lot easier.
That’s what this article is for: to help you find the amplifier that’s best for you.
We break the subject down into five main sections:
Right here, right now
You press ‘play’ on the remote and settle back. Andy Summers’ guitar rings out; syncopating with the sharp percussive whack of Stewart Copeland’s snare, and the rounded, guttural drive of Sting’s bass. The sound is alive before you – a powerful, dynamic experience that sounds for all the world like the band is right there in your lounge room. This is what top-quality music is all about!
Time to shift gears. You reach for the remote again, and change sources. At first the sound is barely perceptible – it comes from almost nowhere but gradually fills the room before your very ears. Percussion at the rear of the soundstage; strings to the left, swelling as the movement builds. Double-basses and cellos to the right. The woodwinds join in, stage-centre. In just a few, joyous moments your room is filled by a full symphony orchestra in full flight – one of the most impressive experiences in live music, here in your own home.
When your breath is taken away by what you’re hearing, when you can close your eyes and believe that a three-piece band like The Police or the 70 musicians of a full symphony orchestra are in your home performing just for you, then you’ve truly entered the world of hi-fi.
And right at the centre of these performances is an otherwise unremarkable metal box: your amplifier, working hard to produce the highs and lows, the full dynamic range and exhilaration of an artist’s performance. When an amp is not doing its job well, that’s when you notice it. Otherwise it is the unsung hero of the musical experience: powerful, accurate, transparent and above all, real.
What does an amplifier do?
At first glance the job of the amplifier seems very simple. It takes the low energy signal from your source devices (such as a CD player or a turntable) and beefs it up into a higher energy signal to drive your speakers.
But when you get down in it, there’s more going on than meets the eye. A good amplifier does its job with the absolute minimum changes to the characteristics of the signal that comes into it. What comes out of, say, your CD player goes into the amplifier and then goes out to the speakers with minimal changes, only louder.
An average or a poor amplifier changes the signal to a greater extent than a good one, and what goes out to the speakers less like what comes in. Sometimes the changes an amplifier makes to the signal are due to poor design, or could be due to a manufacturer using cheap parts, or could be about the ability of the amplifier to access enough electrical power to do its job properly.
When the amplifier makes changes to the signal that come in you get a whole lot of unwanted and unwelcome characteristics added to what you end up hearing. An amplifier makes some changes by design, and these can be set by the listener – using treble and bass controls, for example – but ideally an amplifier should make the absolute minimum of unwanted and un-asked-for changes.
All hifi system amplification features two types of amplifiers: a pre-amp and a power amp. Sometimes these are sold as separate components and you connect them together yourself, but most commonly and most conveniently they are combined inside one box and called an integrated amplifier.
Know your amp from your receiver (and your AV receiver) A “receiver” is an integrated amplifier with an AM/FM radio tuner built into it. Whether you end up buying an amplifier or a receiver is a little irrelevant; it’s just that one will allow you to listen to the radio. The discussion about the quality of the amplifier remains unchanged. It also remains unchanged if you’re thinking about buying an “AV receiver”, which will also handle video. In this article we’re only discussing amplifiers. We’ll cover AV receivers in separate articles because there is a whole host of other issues to consider besides the amplifier when video enters the picture – no pun intended. |
Test drive it to death!
Whichever path you take, you can’t tell how well an amplifier is going to do the job you need it to do without actually listening to it. The manufacturer or the retailer will tell you all about its specifications – its frequency response, total harmonic distortion, power output and the like – but that’s like being told a car has four doors, a V8 engine and power steering. You don’t know how it’s going to perform and whether you like it until you drive it.
Hifi experts will often tell you that choosing the amplifier is possibly the single most important decision you can make when you’re putting together your hifi system. Others will tell you that the speakers are the most important component. If you’ve built your speakers at The Speaker Project, then we’re going to assume you’re committed to these speakers being central to your system, so it’s absolutely true that the next most important decision you need to make is your amp. (We will discuss the selection of other hifi system components in future articles.)
Any good hifi shop will be set up so you can do comparative listening tests between all sorts of hifi components, and in all sorts of combinations. In a perfect world, when you’re choosing an amplifier, you could take your own speakers with you and listen to a range of different options played through them. If that’s not possible, you need to find a pair in the shop that most closely match your own. It’s about eliminating as many unknown variables from your listening tests as you possibly can.
Once you’re set up and ready to listen, play some source material that you’re already well familiar with. Listen to the music at a comfortable level, and listen to it louder than comfortable, too. Amplifiers (and speakers, for that matter) often reveal their shortcomings and performance quirks when you work them hard.
Above all, take your time. Switch between your various options as often as you need to so that you can get straight in your own head what you prefer the sound of. Don’t be rushed into a decision, and if switching back and forth all starts to get too confusing, walk away and come back another day.
What you like and what you don’t like the sound of is a fundamentally personal choice and there are only a few genuinely black-and-white, right-or-wrong issues. One such issue is that the music you listen to should never, ever, sound distorted. Distortion you can actually hear is a sure sign something has gone horribly wrong, somewhere. If you hear any distortion don’t bother spending too much time figuring out how or where it’s coming from; move on and try another amplifier.
The amplifier class system
There are different types of amplifiers, designated by “class”, and this designation refers to how the amplifier is laid out internally, how it works and how much power it needs to draw (and therefore how much heat it generates) to do its job.
There is a mountain of literature about whether Class-A amplifiers are “better” or “worse” than Class-D amplifiers. Purists will tell you Class-A amplifiers reproduce music best; but they are also inefficient and tend to run very hot. Class-D amplifiers are significantly more efficient, but their musical reproduction isn’t quite as good.
We started out this article by saying the aim of choosing an amplifier is to find the one that most faithfully reproduces the signals it receives from your source devices. That remains true, but the real world is often a bit messier than the ideal one. There is inevitably going to be a compromise between ease and convenience of use, performance and price.
How you trade those variables off against each other is up to you. We’ll look more closely at the world of amplifier topography in future articles. |
What are you going to listen to?
If the quality of sound were the only issue you need to think about when choosing an amplifier, the task would be a lot more straightforward than it often ends up being. But there are other issues you need to think about as well.
For example, how many different sources do you want to listen to? Do you listen only to CDs, and do you want to use an analogue input (e.g. the red and white RCA plugs), or does your CD player have an optical output option? Do you also have a turntable, and will you need a special input (labelled on the amplifier as “phono”)? Will you be streaming music to your new amp, so does it need Bluetooth functionality? Will you hook up a DAC – and what sort of input does that device need?
It goes without saying that the amplifier you choose should cater to all the sources you’ll be listening to, and it’s good to have a couple of unallocated inputs left over, just in case you add something to your set-up later.
How many watts do I need?
The final consideration you need to make is how many watts you want the amplifier to provide.
The rule of thumb is to look for an amplifier that can provide twice the recommended wattage of your speakers. This is especially important if you plan on pushing your speakers to their maximum recommended loudness.
The with under powered amplifiers you will run into problems of clipping and excessive distortion when playing loud music with high dynamic range.
However, not all amplifiers provide the same sonic performance per watt as others. If an amp does not get the first watt right then it's unlikely the amp will sound good at higher volumes.
So while you want to look for an amp that has twice the wattage of your speakers, there are other factors to consider like how it sounds connected to your speakers and how it sounds at a volume that you will most often listen too.
If you don't plan pushing your speakers to their maximum volume then you can consider getting a lower wattage amplifier. It's not uncommon for audiophiles to run 20 watt tube amplifiers on speakers rated at 200 watts. They don't plan on running the speakers at their max acoustic output and enjoy the sound that their small 20 watt provides.
Which is the best one for me?
The amplifier that’s best for you is the one that sounds best to your ear, has all the input options you need now (and a couple more in case you expand your system later) and that you can afford.
That last issue is just as personal a choice as your preference in sound. A rule-of-thumb in hifi used to hold that your speakers should account for about half the total cost of your hifi system. So here’s some really good news. If you built your speakers with The Speaker Project, you outlaid a fraction of the cost of similar quality speakers if you’d bought them from a hifi retailer (and you had a hell of a lot more fun, too). So you can allocate a greater slice of your budget to your amplifier!
To do your The Speaker Project speakers justice, you need to drive them with a really good quality amplifier. You won’t regret the decisions you take now to make the most of what you’ve got.
The Speaker Project recommends
Amps can be as cheap as $40 and exceed $50,000. Within this price range there're so many great amplifiers to suit different taste and budgets.
Over the years, Atlas the founder of The Speaker Project has heard his fair share of amps. Keep reading to see his recommendations.
SMSL AD18
For the price, I don't know if there's a better option than the SMSL AD18. It's an integrated amp and comes with practicable features such as Bluetooth connectivity, analogue and digital inputs and a claimed 80 watts of power - that I doubt is true and expect it to be closer to the 30 watt mark. Albeit, enough to drive most speakers to a reasonable loudness.
Based on my listening impressions, the SMSL AD18 amp provides a warm laid back sound that conveys the major aspects of music. It falls short in the areas of bass control, dynamics and clarity.
This amp would suit anyone who's looking for an amp that sounds reasonable and has Bluetooth connectivity built in. The amp comes with a remote control, so you can adjust the volume from the comfort of your couch.
I will say that if you're looking to invest in some high performance speakers such as our Trohet speakers, then I would advise you invest in a more refined amp - keep reading.
Cambridge Audio AXA25
For $500 AUD you can pick up a brand new Cambridge Audio AXA25. This integrated amp provides that true hifi sound, punchy bass, accurate production of notes and clarity. I was thoroughly impressed with the sound quality of this amp especially considering its affordability.
It also looks great too, the brushed front panel along with the utilitarian styling provide a modern aesthetic.
The only down side is that this amp delivers a mere 25 watts, which means that the amp will struggle to sound good at high volumes - if you don't plan on listening to music loud then this shouldn't be a major issue. Secondly, the amp only has analogue inputs and does not have Bluetooth connectivity. Nevertheless, the latter can be solved by using a Bluetooth receiver such as the BluDento.
Audiolab 6000A
The Audiolab 6000A is an integrated amp that provides 50 watts and is regarded as a very good sounding amp within its price category. According to Whathifi.com, the 6000a "has a gorgeous sense of clarity and ample detail, leaving you listening to your music library comfortably for hours on end" - I agree as I found this amp to be engaging to listen too.
The amp also comes with Bluetooth, so you're able stream music directly from Spotify or the alike. While the cheaper amps like the SMSL AD18 mentioned have Bluetooth, the circuitry in the 6000a is far superior offering a enhanced listening experience.
Finally, the 6000a comes with a multitude of inputs, both analogue and digital, so you're afforded to connect your turntable and your TV's audio output. With the latter I recommend using your TV's optical output for this.
Musical Fidelity M3si
The M3si integrated amplifier is a special amp, it sounds powerful with its deep bass, detailed mid-range frequencies and refined treble - I recommend this amp to people who want to hear the sound of true high-end audio.
The M3si provides 85 watts and can deliver power to the most demanding speakers thanks to its high amperage output. If you want deep controlled bass, you need an amplifier that can deliver amps, lots of it!
This amp retails for around $2500 AUD, and for most this may be expensive or above your budget. But my moto is, audio is like wine, and life's too short to drink bad wine. On top that, this is an amp you will have for life.
The way I describe this amp is that it makes music sound special, it brings out the emotions and is guaranteed to make the hair stand on your back. It's powerful and it's moving. The amp produces a "soundstage" that is bigger than the room itself and gives the illusion that the musicians are playing in front of you. I should also note that this amp delivers excellent dynamic range, meaning both the softest and loudest sounds are easily heard.
In essence, this amp sounds like it isn't trying hard, it's confident.
The downside? The amp doesn't come with in-built Bluetooth od Wifi connectivity, so for that you will need a streamer - I recommend the Wiim Pro for this. It's cheap and sounds great too.
Junsung JA88D
The JA88D has been regarded by some as the best kept secret in hifi. The amp is an exceptional performer that rivals amps costing much more.
We bought this amp years ago. We picked this amp new for $1000 AUD, which is an absolute bargain. But like all bargains, there can be some consequence/risk involved. This amp had to be purchased from a dubious online store that had a reputation of poor customer service. We took the punt and ordered the amp.
So, a word of caution, if you're planning on buying one of these amps do your research into the retailer and their reliability. Audio forums are great for this.
As to sound quality, the JA-88D is one the warm side, and sounds more retro than modern; so, expect lots of character but at the cost of accuracy and transparency.
Where the amp really shines is in the midrange; it's smooth like chocolate. I can listen to this amp for hours on end without fatiguing my ears.
If I were to say where the JA88D falls short, I'd say it's the high frequencies. They're there, but not as engaging as more modern high-performance amps. So, if you're looking for super sparkly highs then this amp might not be for you. I consider the JA88D to sound quite dark in the sense that everything is there and reproduced accurately, it's just that nothing seems to jump out or try and grab your attention.
The JA88D is an integrated amplifier based on a true differential design, something that is rare to find. Differential designs offer the benefit of reducing noise, which is the nemesis of accurate sound reproduction. The amp does not have in built Bluetooth or Wifi connectivity, so an external streamer is needed. We use the Bluesound Node N130 paired with the Matrix Mini I Pro for Wi-Fi connectivity. The Wiim Pro would also be a great option too.
An in-depth review of the JA88D(09) has been published by Australian HiFi - a great read.
What amp do currently use?
Wonder what amplifier the founder of The Speaker Project owns?
Atlas Gouverneur was after an amp that offered a neutral sound while being accurate. The purpose of this amp wasn't only just for enjoying music, but also testing his speakers. He uses a pair of Hypex FA252 plate amps mounted into a homemade box.
The FA252 is a plate amp, which is designed to be mounted to the rear of the speaker in an active speaker arrangement. Instead, two external boxes were made to house the amps. It is definitely not a conventional amp, but it sure does sound good and it's also super versatile; it is well adept to be used for musical enjoyment but also incredibly helpful for speaker design and testing.
The hallmark of this amp is that it uses Hypex Ncore technology which provides super low harmonic and intermodulation distortion and has a high damping factor for bass control - so imagine super clean, detailed sound free of any harshness. These amps are also damn cheap considering their high performance!
With a power output of 2 x 250W into 4Ω and 2 x 150W into 8Ω, the FA252 demonstrates serious capacity to drive speakers with demanding requirements. The amp also has two channels, which can be used in an active setup, or can be bridged to double the power output.
Furthermore, the FA252 incorporates an inbuilt Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) and onboard Digital Signal Processing (DSP) capabilities, enhancing its functionality beyond mere amplification. The DAC facilitates seamless conversion of digital audio signals to analog, which means that one can bypass the need for an external DAC.
The onboard DSP offers powerful tools including room EQ (Equalization), which is super helpful when dealing with challenging room acoustics.
Next great thing is that this amp can be directly connect to you TV via coaxial or Toslink. The use of the optional remote can be used to select between sources, adjust volume and also select different sound presets!
In summary, the FA252 is insanely good choice if you want great sound at a relatively low-price point. But there is a catch, these amps require one to build an external box and need to be setup via connecting the amps to a computer and adjusting the required fields. One definitely needs to follow the user manual to do this.
What about other DIY amp kits?
There is no denying that the highest price to performance ratio is had from the DIY route; but not all DIY amps are created equal. If you're after industry leading performance, then these two-amp kits are the bees' knees. They're also easier to implement than the FA252 as mentioned above as they don't require programming before use.
For those seeking industry-leading performance, two standout options are the Purifi Eigentakt and the Hypex Nilai 500 amplifier kits. Renowned for their exceptional quality and cutting-edge technology, these kits offer enthusiasts the opportunity to assemble amplifiers that rival even the most high-end commercial offerings. The Purifi Eigentakt kit is revered for its groundbreaking Eigentakt amplification technology, delivering unparalleled sound quality and efficiency. On the other hand, the Hypex Nilai 500 kit boasts impressive power and seriously low distortion, making it a top choice for audiophiles demanding the utmost in performance.
Whether you're a seasoned DIY enthusiast or simply seeking the best bang for your buck, these kits represent the pinnacle of DIY amplifier design and construction.
Disclaimer: Building amps can be dangerous given that they work with high voltage inputs, so it is important to follow the instructions. It is also wise to have all work checked over by a certified electrician.
Written by Simon Hoyle and Atlas Gouverneur