The Basics of Home Theatre Amplifiers Too Get You Started

Amplifiers can be found in many electronic items around the house: televisions, computers, and portable CD players, for example. In fact, any device that uses a speaker, usually also requires an amplifier. When you set up your home theatre system, you’ll be looking at which home theatre amplifiers would be best suited to you, in terms of quality, power and potential, as well as budget, of course.

There are so many different types of home theatre amplifiers: multichannel power amplifiers, stereo power amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, distribution amplifiers, and Classes A through to S amplifiers, so it’s important to know a little about them in order to purchase the most appropriate one.

Firstly, however, you should know the very basics of what amplifiers actually do: they boost the power of an audio signal. In order to do this, using a power supply such as a battery, they generate an output circuit to which resistance is applied by the input circuit (an electrical audio signal) such as a microphone. The result is a recreation of the original audio signal, but on a greater scale.

It’s also important to know how home theatre amplifiers actually work. The primary component of an amplifier is a transistor comprised of semiconductors, elements able to conduct electric currents to varying degrees. These semiconductors are layered and react differently when placed in various combinations. Naturally, some combinations produce a greater output than others.

Your aim should be to find a home theatre amplifier, which distorts the audio signal as little as possible. The two types of distortion are harmonic and intermodulation, with harmonic being fairly well-tolerated by a listener (mostly not noticeable) and intermodulation being the opposite (akin to an off-key singer in a choir).

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Unfortunately, all home theatre amplifiers have an additional unwanted “hiss” or background noise aswell, which can be heard if you turn on the amplifier connected to the input (for example, a microphone), which is turned on but not in use.

In itself, this can be acceptable, however, bearing in mind that other components of your home theatre system may add their own “noise”, you should be aware that it can all add up to become unacceptable, and is therefore something to watch out for.

Probably the most widely misunderstood aspect of home theatre amplifiers is their listed output. This is shown in watts and Ohms. Watts being the power produced and ohms being the amount of resistance the electric current is subject to when travelling through the circuitry.

For example, if your amplifier manufacturer advertises the wattage as 100 watts, it must always be at a certain resistance, such as 4 Ohms. What this really means, is that if the resistance is 4 Ohms, that particular model of amplifier will generate 100 watts. Should the amount of Ohms change, so too, would the wattage.

Since there is so much information about amplifiers online, it would prudent to run a search with the term “home theatre amplifiers” through any of the major search engines and read up on reviews and personal experiences of others worldwide. Forums with recommended models and interactive chat rooms can answer a lot of questions you may not have even thought to ask!