17
Testing and safety
Testing and fault-finding
Testing power amplifiers for correct operation is relatively easy; faultfinding them when something is wrong is not. I have been professionally engaged with power amplifiers for a long time, and I must admit I still sometimes find it to be a difficult and frustrating business.
There are several reasons for this. First, almost all small-signal audio stages are IC-based, so the only part of the circuit likely to fail can be swiftly replaced, so long as the IC is socketed. A power amplifier is the only place where you are likely to encounter a large number of components all in one big negative feedback loop. The failure of any components may (if you are lucky) simply jam the amplifier output hard ...
Get Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
