Audio Amplifiers  Audio Amplifiers

Recommendations of audio amplifiers for computer recording environments

If you are very exact, then Audio Amplifiers and Speakers are not part of the recording chain. The come behind recording. But because you act on what you hear, they influence what you record and mix.

It is not hard to get a good amplifier today. Technically the are the strongest part of the recording chain. Very linear, very low distortion, very clean in fact.

So, what should you look for when it comes to choose your favorite amp?

Here are the most important features for amplifiers in computer recording environments:

  • It should never, ever clip. That means enough power, watts, headroom, energy, beef, however you call it...

  • It should be silent. You don't want to hear that noise floor from the fans all the time (I mean cooling fans, not those in front of your house crying for autographs...) You can choose either a cooling system without fan (convection cooling) or at least a  cooling system with proportional fans. That means the fans run with exactly the optimum cooling speed.

  • It should be secure. You don't want an amplifier that kills your speakers when he has a little problem. So look out for protection circuits against overheat, Power Pack failures and Speaker Short-circuits.

That's about all I consider important. Some people can talk for hours about the "sound" of amplifiers (...They don't mean guitar amps).

I prefer studio-amplifiers without any additional sound and leave "sound-making" either to musicians, plug-ins or outboard gear.

Most of the newer amps do pretty well in sounding great by not sounding at all.

Now I will recommend some amplifiers for different applications. I was searching for online shops, that provide a detailed description of the amplifiers. If you click at the text links below, the specifications appear in a new window. To return to this page, just close the window again.

As an amplifier for smaller systems, that applies to the features above, I can recommend the Samson Servo 170 Power Amplifier It is not expensive (in fact really cheap), needs no fan and has pretty good protection circuits.

For bigger near- and midfield monitors I recommend the new Alesis power amps. They are convection cooled masterpieces (means without cooling fans), starting with the Alesis RA150 Power Amp, which delivers 75 watts per channel at 4 ohms for near field monitors, the Alesis RA300 Power Amp with 150 watts per channel at 4 ohms and finally the Alesis RA500 Power Amplifier boasting 250 watts per channel at 4 ohms. This should be enough for even the biggest midfield monitors.

When you need a power source for big Studio Monitors in big rooms, I would suggest the Crown CE2000 Amplifier. For a fair price it can produce an incredible 660W at 4 ohms and yet stay pretty cool.