Recent models of audio super-mini amplifiers prove that audio technology has gone the same path as computer technology and cell phones. While the features are growing, the size of today’s consumer products is becoming smaller and smaller. You most likely still recall the good old tube amps which would dominate the living room. Whilst tube amps are still popular among fanatics, audio amplifiers nowadays are solid-state amps for the most part.

Modern solid-state amplifiers merge the conventional pre amp and power amp stages into a neat single box no larger than a DVD player. New developments in audio technology in regard to power efficiency of have permitted the development of a new generation of super-miniature audio amplifiers, such as Amphony’s microFidelity Model 100. Even though these amps are as small as a deck of cards, they are capable to deliver up to 50 Watts power and without difficulty drive a speaker to full volume.

In history, audio amplifiers would possess comparatively low power efficiency due to the “Class-A” and “Class-AB” structure of analog amplifiers. Analog audio amplifiers by nature only convert a small percentage of the power they consume – normally in the order of 20% to 30% – into audio whereas a large part is dissipated as heat. This requires that depending on the supported output power, analog audio amps have to provide substantial cooling which is accomplished by employing heat sinks. These heat sinks do not permit these amplifiers to be made very small.

Digital “Class-D” amplifiers offer higher power efficiency than analog amplifiers – typically around 80% to 95% – and thus can be miniaturized. One main drawback of “Class-D” amplifiers is the fact that digital “Class-D” amplifiers use a switching stage at the output which causes non-linearity and thus some amount of distortion of the audio signal. This disadvantage has slowed the advance of digital amplifiers.

Some new amplifier technologies have emerged. Among those are “Class-T” and newer generation “Class-D” architectures. These types of new architectures, such as the technology used in Amphony’s Model 100 use a feedback mechanism. The output signal is fed back to the amplifier input. By using this feedback, the amplifier can compensate for nonlinearities of the output stage. This permits the distortion to be reduced to levels similar to analog audio amplifiers. At the same time the amplifier offers the high power efficiency of digital amplifiers.

These new generation miniature audio amplifiers open up applications where traditional amplifiers would fail, such as speaker installations where space is premium, including in-ceiling speakers and applications that connect speakers to a cable box or DVD/MP3 player.

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