
5
Typical Performance Curves
FIGURE 1. THD +N (%) vs FREQUENCY LOAD = 8
FIGURE 2. AMPLIFIER FREQUENCY RESPONSE
10W - LOAD = 8
FIGURE 3. AMPLIFIER TRANSFER CHARACTERISTIC WITH
VARIOUS SETTINGS OF SOFT CLIPPING
RESISTOR
FIGURE 4. OSCILLOSCOPE DISPLAY OF AMPLIFIER
OUTPUT WITH SOFT CLIPPING CIRCUIT
ENABLED
Soft Clipping
Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the effects of the soft clipping
circuitry within the amplifier. Figure 3 shows the transfer
characteristic of the amplifier for various values of the soft
clipping programming resistor. An important aspect of soft
clipping is the apparent increase in sound level. As soft
clipping is reached, the upper and lower envelop of the
sinewave is gradually reduced. This “soft” rounding reduces
the higher harmonics that would result if hard clipping as
shown in Figure 5 was enabled. Soft clipping also results in
an amplifier with a more pleasing sound. Figure 4 shows the
rounding of the output with soft clipping, while Figure 5
shows the ampler output without soft clipping.
FIGURE 5. OSCILLOSCOPE DISPLAY OF AMPLIFIER
OUTPUT WITH SOFT CLIPPING CIRCUIT
DISABLED
1
0.1
0.01
0.001
0.0005
10
100
1k
10k
30k
T
FREQUENCY (Hz)
400W
20W
10
100
1k
10k
80k
FREQUENCY (Hz)
1.000
0.0
-1.000
-2.000
-3.000
-4.000
-5.000
-6.000
A
LOAD = 4
LOAD = 8
0.0
13.0
26.0
39
52
65
78
90
0.0
0.6 0.12 0.18 2.4
3.0
3.6
4.2
4.8
5.2
6.0
1012
760
528
338
190
84
21
0.0
INPUT VOLTAGE (V
RMS
)
O
R
)
O
R
)
LOAD = 8
AMPLIFIER OUTPUT vs INPUT
R = 20K
R = 10K
R =
∞
1
1ms/DIV
DSA 602A DIGITIZING SIGNAL ANALYZER
1
1ms/DIV
DSA 602A DIGITIZING SIGNAL ANALYZER
HCA600ACREF