electronics-amplifier tutorial

The amplifier circuit uses the basic circuitry of the 70W power amplifier, but modified for true Class-A operation - it should be pretty nice! This amp has been built by several readers, and the reports I have received have been very positive.

With simulations, everything appears to be as expected, but although I have yet to actually build it and test it out thoroughly, no-one has had any problems so far. Using +/-20 Volt supplies - either conventional, regulated or using a capacitance multiplier, it should actually be capable of about 22 W before clipping, but expect to use a big heatsink - this amp will run hot.l.)

The current sink shown should have very high linearity, since it is based on the same concept as the output stage devices. The 0.25 Ohm resistor should cause little grief (4 x 1 Ohm 1W resistors in parallel), but some experimentation may be needed here, since the base-emitter voltage of the BC549 determines the current. This circuit works by using the BC549 to steal any excess base current from the compound pair. As soon as the voltage across the 0.25 Ohm resistor exceeds 0.65V, the transistor turns on and achieves balance virtually instantly.

The 1k trimpot in the collector of the first LTP transistor allows the DC offset to be adjusted. The nominal value is around 400 ohms, but making it variable allows you to set the output DC offset to within a few mV of zero.