Can I plug a power amp into a power amp?

Started by Taylor, November 20, 2007, 08:41:48 PM

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Taylor

I have some little power amp circuits, each 8 watts. Can I plug one into another to get more wattage? I know this is probably not ideal, I'm just wondering if it will work, and if so, if there will be any problems.


drewl

You can use a power amp to drive another power amp, but the output would only be that of the final power amp.

km-r

you may, but with an appropriate attenuator, else the preceding stage would get upset of the load.
for more watts, connect them in parallel but make sure of the impedances each amp will have...
Look at it this way- everyone rags on air guitar here because everyone can play guitar.  If we were on a lawn mower forum, air guitar would be okay and they would ridicule air mowing.

BrianJ

If you parallel the amps the output current (and therefore wattage) capability would increase but, if the "signal level" doesn't increase, the speaker load must decrease to increase output power.  Speaker loads should only get so low, so another trick is to to parallel the amps into TWO groups and send one group the an inverted version of your input signal.  One group of amps drives the + terminal and the other the - terminal.  This effectively doubles the output signal level and shares the load between the two groups.  This trick is used in some computer speaker circuits and headphone amps where current is unlimited but voltage swings are.   

If that wasn't very clear let me know.