Amplifiers

Best Amplifier reviews, Buying Guide, Price Comparison

Welcome to the UK's leading Amplifier reviews website. Amplify the sound systems in your car with the latest audio amplifiers and Home Audio Amplifier in the market with the help of our unbiased reviews of car amplifiers from major manufacturers including Sony, Kenwood, Jensen, Lexicon, Legacy, Crown, and more. Read our extensive buying guide for an in-depth idea about the product. Find exclusive deals and offers from major online car amplifier retailers as well.

Things to Consider Before Buying an Amplifier

Amplifiers or amps are used to boost an electrical signal. Hence it is essentially used in home theatre systems, for boosting up the volume or audio signals. An amplifier is usually considered to be the core of your home theatre.

Connectors – One of the important aspects to consider when buying an amp is the set of connectors it has on-board. These devices are equipped with a large variety of connectors or ports, for connecting various other devices (like music system, DVD player or Blu Ray player, speakers etc.). In case you already have a furnished home theatre, then you'll have to choose an amp that will be compatible with all the available devices. In case you still have to buy all the other equipment, then you can choose an amplifier based on your entertainment requirements and budget.

Specifications – The electrical specifications, like the power rating also need to be considered when buying an amp. For example, if you have speakers of a particular power rating, then you'll need to choose an amp which will be compatible with them.

Extra features – A basic amplifier will just do regular audio signal boosting. The newer high-end ones are capable of decoding high definition sounds as well. Such amps can be of great use especially when you have a Blu Ray player at home.

Stereo and Surround sound amps – Stereo amps are simply two-channel amps that can decode music recorded in 2-channels. Music from a CD is an example. Some modern amps support surround sound. These devices can decode sounds from 6 channels, for a surround sound experience.

There are a number of amplifier brands available in the market like Sony, Yamaha, Pioneer, Bazooka, Arcam, Philips, Samsung and more. Thus you have a large variety to choose from. Budget is an important factor that can affect your choice. If your budget is not tight, then you can always go in for a top-notch, feature-rich amp. If you're someone with a taste for décor, then you can also go in for amplifiers with an exquisite finish.

Buying Guide

A look through into the  Amplifiers

Amplifiers or an amp as the name suggests amplifies the weak signals into stronger ones. In simple terms, it boosts the electrical signals. Amplifiers are the only solution to increase both the current and the voltage. These are also applied in musical instruments such as the guitar. Amplifiers such as transistor, vacuum tube or valve, fully differential and operational are used for particular purpose. Earlier amplifiers were normally used in appliances such as telephones, radios and TV.  Later amplifiers were commonly used to amplify sound waves of low frequency. These are called as subwoofer amplifiers. The use of amplifiers are restricted to only control the volume of sound.

Later technology developed and the role of the amplifier was elaborated. Now that the amplifiers are used not only to boost the sound signals but also to bring out the clarity to the contents. By adjusting the amplifier, listeners can add accent to vocal messages or contents in a stage programme or to the background instrument music.

Amplifiers these days are made of solid-state electronics although some are made of vacuum tubes. Electrical noise is reduced by the use of toroidal transformers for power supply.

Now lets go through various types of amplifiers. Few electronic amplifiers are power amplifier, transistor amplifier, vacuum tube amplifier, operational amplifier, video amplifier, fully differential amplifier, microwave amplifier and musical instrument amplifier. And few other amplifier types are carbon microphone, rotating electrical machinery amplifier, magnetic amplifier, optical amplifer,mechanical amplifier and Johnsen-Rahbek effect amplifier.

Some important features of an amplifier are Linearity, Noise, Gain and Dynamicrange. Linearity measures the proportionality of the output signal to the input signal. Noise is referred to as the amount of unwanted interference or static that is added by the amplifier to the input signal. Gain is the ratio of the power of the input and the output. Dynamicrange is the part of the output signal that is useful. It lies in between the distortion and the noise levels.

Sky is the limit for the development and researches done in Science and Technology. So one can surely expect amplifiers to be used in further more number of  applications.