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Here is a super noobie question about amplifier classes.

bikingbuddha

bikingbuddha

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone, as usual here is a super noobie question that keeps lingering in my head for a while.

How do i identify the class of an amplifier I own...? is there a way to do this...? I search for specification on a certain model and it gives out all the info other than CLASS.

At the moment I have
Sansui 310 (love it)
Pioneer model SA-80

and a tube amplifier with both power and pre-stages tube. ( I believe this is class A),

I was also wondering if sansui had done any pure CLASS A amplifiers...?

I also own the Little Dot MK 2 for my HD6XX (that also I know it is Class A)

Fx Audio Dac X6 (No idea which class it is, probably D?) currently being used as the DAC.
 
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Both your Sansui and Pioneer are typical class AB amplifiers. I cannot answer the question as to whether or not Sansui produced any true class A power amps. Those are pretty rare. Perhaps you might pose that question in the Sansui forum.

Tube amplifiers aren't all class A. Single ended triode designs are but most are likewise of an AB design.

It is more typical to find line level devices to run class A as there isn't a large amount of heat to dissipate. Your DAC most likely uses a small chip amp for headphone duty and op amps for main output.
 
First, most amps run class A at least at lowest levels.
The pioneer is not a class A amp.
While clearly class A has its advantages.
A properly designed AB amp can perform as well and in many instances better.
I'm not saying AB is better. What I'm saying is class of amplification alone doesn't tell nearly the whole story.
I'll do a little digging and see if i can tell some of other things mentioned.
Also you said you had a tube pre and amp.
Most pres run class A.
If you say what kind of amp , maybe we can answer that too.
 
nj pheonix said:
First, most amps run class A at least at lowest levels.
The pioneer is not a class A amp.
While clearly class A has its advantages.
A properly designed AB amp can perform as well and in many instances better.
I'm not saying AB is better. What I'm saying is class of amplification alone doesn't tell nearly the whole story.
I'll do a little digging and see if i can tell some of other things mentioned.
Also you said you had a tube pre and amp.
Most pres run class A.
If you say what kind of amp , maybe we can answer that too.
Click to expand...


I myself have no idea what brand of make is the tube amp. It just sounds wonderful. I will post some photos so you can have a look.

There is absolutely no info about it online.

IMG_20200809_090506.jpg
IMG_20200809_090513.jpg
 
JohnT123 said:
Now that looks like a class A amp given I can see one output tube and a transformer for each channel. Each tube serves 100% duty cycle, so class A.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much. It sounds so good on my altec lansing high fidelity 95 speakers. Not super loud but half way in the volume it gets loud enough.
 
It probably only makes 3-4 wpc
Fortunately altecs tend to very high efficiency and are often paired with tube amps (especially low powered set and sep amps.
 
I use me home brew SEUL amp pushing ~8 wpc to drive a set of Klipsch Heresy speakers. More than enough for my apartment. Tremendous amount of heat and energy used to generate very little power, but it sounds amazing.
 
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