Sony STR-DA555ES 手册

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ES Receivers v1.0 
 
Page 5 
Why Digital Amplification? 
 
 
After decades of engineering practice, the limitations and awkward 
characteristics of traditional amplifiers have become so familiar that most 
engineers don't even notice them: 
 
•  Complexity.  In the context of today's home theater receivers, you have 
digital source material processed through a digital preamplifier—only to be 
converted to analog prior to amplification.   
•  Heat generation.  Conventional power output transistors throw off much of 
their power as heat.  And heat is always bad for electronics.   
•  Thermal modulation distortion.  Changes in the audio signal cause 
immediate changes in the output transistor temperature, which in turn cause 
changes in transistor performance!  This is thermal modulation distortion.   
•  Crossover distortion.  Conventional transistor pairs create crossover 
distortion, which becomes particularly audible during quiet passages.  The 
normal solution is amplifier bias—which means more heat!   
•  Open-loop distortion.  Traditional amplifiers typically generate substantial 
"open-loop" distortion.  The Negative Feedback (NFB) used to correct this 
can trigger other problems like Transient Intermodulation Distortion.   
 
 
Commonly understood for decades, these limitations are so thoroughly 
ingrained in home audio design that they're considered "inevitable."  Resolving 
these issues means accepting massive heat sinks, tolerating circuitous signal 
paths and chasing down transient distortions.  Sony engineers sought a better 
way.  Sony's S-Master Pro circuitry overcomes these fundamental constraints by 
completely replacing analog amplification with digital technology.  
 
 
Digital amplifiers had been around for decades, outside the mainstream of 
home audio.  But great strides in Large Scale Integration (LSI), 1-bit processing 
and faster MOS FET output transistors have opened the door to a new 
generation of digital amplifier technology.  
 
S-Master Pro: principle of operation 
 
 
In the context of a modern A/V receiver, traditional power amplifiers 
require the needless complexity of D/A conversion, Low Pass Filtering (LPF) and 
analog volume control prior to the input.