Self on Audio, 3rd Edition

Chapter 22Distortion in power amplifiers

Part I: the sources of distortion (Electronics World, August 1993)

For many years I felt that the output stages of power amplifiers presented very great possibilities for creative design, and I actually got round to exploring some of them. The hybrid bipolar-FET output stage, also collected in this volume, was one of them. One of the first difficulties I met was the problem of determining how much of the total distortion was due to the output stage, and how much was being produced in the small-signal sections. This latter contribution turned out to be larger and more important than I expected. Very little reliable information appeared to exist on amplifier distortion, and I found myself embarked on a ...