Dissipation and Efficiency in Audio Power Amplifiers: An Analytical Approach

This paper presents an analytical approach to the problem of accurately determining dissipation and efficiency in class B and AB audio power amplifiers, in the case of both sinusoidal and random signals, where the latter represents a suitable approximation to real music-program signals. The results obtained, summarized in a series of graphs, show that the sinewave approach leads to an overestimation of dissipated power.