DANGERDAN Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Considering the design of class A and its inneffeciency i am wondering how much power the unit does when its in standby with no signal on, i feel a bit of heat coming from the unit and thought that with class A/B architecture that it would use no power. Also with Klipsch being so efficient wouldn't the amp be using a small amount of power. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 This is just my understanding of things, which may be wrong. Class A amp use the same amount of power no matter what the volume is at when it is on. It shound be drawing a decent amout of power in standby mode or half of it's full operational output. Class B amp will use negliable power in standby mode and as power goes up with demand so does the Kilowatt usage. Class A/B is similar to class B, but always has a small amount of idel current going that is much less than class A. The majority of class A power is lost as heat. Class D amps are very effiecient compared to the other two classes. For example my avr use 0.2-0.3 in standby mode. There are other factor to consider to your question that make it difficult to give a number. Using a power conditioner that turns some of the components complete off when not in use is helpful in conserving energy. Class B uses about 1/2 the power of a class A. Class D can be 90% efficient compared to less than 50% for class A and 78% for class B is a therorectical max efficeny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 12, 2012 Author Share Posted September 12, 2012 Thanks for your reply, this was similar to what i was thinking however i was under the impression that when no signal is present that the class B state has the possibility to switch off the transistors and when a signal is fed the class A state is active on low levels but class B is introduced at higher levels of power output. The heat seems to correspond to that as well with the heat being more present at higher sound output levels and at lower levels there is less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Class B will switch off the transitor. Different Class A/B amp have proprietary things going on that still make exact power use hard to determine in standby. Class A is still the gold standard as far as SQ but, are not very popular now due to their size and weight. Many Class A/B and D amps rival the SQ of the Class A amps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 13, 2012 Author Share Posted September 13, 2012 Yea i guess the only way to know is to fit a power meter on and find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ousig Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 go to Home Depot and get a kilz a watt plug it into the wall then your amp into it to get some real #s. You will be surprised how little the amp will really draw under "normal" listening conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERDAN Posted September 16, 2012 Author Share Posted September 16, 2012 Thanks, yea i expect as much due to my old marantz barely pushing 20 watts, only was concerned about the new circuitry design difference. XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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