So this is looking more and more common these days on AB amps, instead of a steady line which bottoms and then rises a bit before rising sharply with clipping.
My feeble mind sees this and thinks this must be variable gain of some kind, which allows for better THD+n at the lower end. At first I thought supply voltage might be fluctuated as well, but after further consideration, not at the size/weight/price point of these amps. Although it would increase efficiency, but I think equal efficiency to previous designs with better low end performance is probably good enough for the first steps in the minds of the designers (change one thing, observe, tweak, move on is the wise move, especially when there's little to gain from changing a lot at once)
OK, so... This real-time gain switching... it looks like it's somewhat gradual, happening whenever THD+n is getting worse after the first bottom (the rise of each little peak). This is happening with the gradual increase in amplitude of a sine wave.
Here's the thing, though... I don't know over how many seconds this increasing amplitude sine wave takes to reach clipping, but I assume its a couple or few seconds. However long it takes, this is nothing like real music. Just like a single tone, is nothing like real music.
What we need, at the very least, to test these types of amplifiers, is some dynamics. Not necessarily 1812 overture level (with the real cannons), but something like music before 1991 (or whenever it was that compression got turned to 11 and the peaks and troughs weren't more than 3db apart anymore - I'm exaggerating a bit on how bad it's gotten, but most music mixed since has only gotten more disgusting this way).
To keep things fair with the normal AB amps without this fancy feature, I don't suggest we change to measuring distortion on songs. BUT, if you were to cleverly apply side chain compression (with the right release and attack) to attenuate a 1khz wave 1:1 using a properly dynamic song (literally anything average from the 70s or 80s)...
THD+n could be compared and a graph generated using different points in the test for different amplitudes (like it is now, except now it's a constantly increasing amplitude sine wave instead of a variable sine wave)
I could be wrong in the premise (that this is variable gain), and so this whole thing could be pointless. But, if I'm not...
If you think this is a good idea, let me know.
If you think this is a good idea which needs a bit of tweaking (like I do, it's not perfect yet, and I don't know what the software is even capable of), post how you think it should be changed.
If you think there is absolutely no reason to test like this, explain why.
And if I am wrong in the premise - what is the cause of this previously rare / anomalous feature of THD+n charts of power amps (like the Topping LA90)? Would testing whatever it is in (roughly) the same way I described still be beneficial? If not, is there something else we should possibly be considering because of how these amps behave? (the relationship used to be linear, and now it's clearly not - very different)
My feeble mind sees this and thinks this must be variable gain of some kind, which allows for better THD+n at the lower end. At first I thought supply voltage might be fluctuated as well, but after further consideration, not at the size/weight/price point of these amps. Although it would increase efficiency, but I think equal efficiency to previous designs with better low end performance is probably good enough for the first steps in the minds of the designers (change one thing, observe, tweak, move on is the wise move, especially when there's little to gain from changing a lot at once)
OK, so... This real-time gain switching... it looks like it's somewhat gradual, happening whenever THD+n is getting worse after the first bottom (the rise of each little peak). This is happening with the gradual increase in amplitude of a sine wave.
Here's the thing, though... I don't know over how many seconds this increasing amplitude sine wave takes to reach clipping, but I assume its a couple or few seconds. However long it takes, this is nothing like real music. Just like a single tone, is nothing like real music.
What we need, at the very least, to test these types of amplifiers, is some dynamics. Not necessarily 1812 overture level (with the real cannons), but something like music before 1991 (or whenever it was that compression got turned to 11 and the peaks and troughs weren't more than 3db apart anymore - I'm exaggerating a bit on how bad it's gotten, but most music mixed since has only gotten more disgusting this way).
To keep things fair with the normal AB amps without this fancy feature, I don't suggest we change to measuring distortion on songs. BUT, if you were to cleverly apply side chain compression (with the right release and attack) to attenuate a 1khz wave 1:1 using a properly dynamic song (literally anything average from the 70s or 80s)...
THD+n could be compared and a graph generated using different points in the test for different amplitudes (like it is now, except now it's a constantly increasing amplitude sine wave instead of a variable sine wave)
I could be wrong in the premise (that this is variable gain), and so this whole thing could be pointless. But, if I'm not...
If you think this is a good idea, let me know.
If you think this is a good idea which needs a bit of tweaking (like I do, it's not perfect yet, and I don't know what the software is even capable of), post how you think it should be changed.
If you think there is absolutely no reason to test like this, explain why.
And if I am wrong in the premise - what is the cause of this previously rare / anomalous feature of THD+n charts of power amps (like the Topping LA90)? Would testing whatever it is in (roughly) the same way I described still be beneficial? If not, is there something else we should possibly be considering because of how these amps behave? (the relationship used to be linear, and now it's clearly not - very different)
