POSSIBLE QUESTIONS FOR DU3 - DU4 EXAM -

SPA
1. What are the two types of power supply in amplifiers? Which type is the most used?
Why?
Linear: Is more used, more cheap and more reliable .
Switched: Is more expensive and less capable of sustaining high output current.
2. What are the input stage levels in an amplifier?
a. Microphone level: It is the voltage of the signal generated by a microphone. It
is the lowest/weakest signal and needs a preamplifier.
b. Instrument level: It is a signal that is between microphone and auxiliary. They
are signals that are normally emitted by an instrument. You need a
preamplifier.
c. Auxiliary level: It has unbalanced auxiliary level inputs and outputs.
d. Line level signals are the highest level signals before amplification. This is the
type of signal that typically flows through your recording system after the
preamplifier stage and before the amplifier that powers your speakers.
3. RMS Power vs Peak Power
RMS power, or root mean square power, is the continuous power that an amplifier
can output, or that a speaker can handle. It's the average power that the amplifier or
speaker can handle over time. In other words, it's the power that the amplifier or
speaker can handle for long periods of time without being damaged.

Peak power, on the other hand, is the maximum power that an amplifier can output,
or that a speaker can handle. It's the maximum power that the amplifier or speaker
can handle for short periods of time without being damaged.

Typically, a unit’s peak power handling is double the RMS power handling, which
basically means that the above products are actually rated the same: 150 W peak/75
W RMS.
4. What is headroom?
Headroom is simply a term used to denote and describe how much power
your amp can provide before the sound starts to break up and distort.

5. What is the frequency response in an amplifier?

The frequency response of an amplifier is the change in gain over a specified range
of input signal frequencies.

6. What is the amplifier noise?

Noise is an unwanted signal which interferes with the original message signal and
corrupts the parameters of the message signal. And in this case, it is the noise
introduced to a signal in an amplifier device.

7. What is the amplifier gain?

It can be said that the gain of an amplifier is the ratio between the value of the
 signal obtained at the output and that of the input.
There are three types
○ Voltage gain: Obtained by measuring the value of the input voltage and the
output voltage and realizing their quotient.
○ Current gain: It is obtained by measuring the value of the output current and
the input current, making their quotient.
○ Power gain: Obtained by dividing the power obtained at the output the
power delivered to the input.

8. What is the sensitivity of an amplifier?

The sensitivity of a power amplifier is that specified voltage at the input that will
cause the amplifier to reach full rated power.

9. What is THD of an amplifier?

Total Harmonic Distortion is a value of measurement given to the difference between
the input signal and the output signal from the amplifier.

The lower the THD figure, the better the sound quality, as this would mean the audio
signal is in a purer form.

10. What is SNR of an amplifier?

SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) is the ratio between the output power of the signal
and the power of the noise produced by the amplifier. It also can be calculated as the
difference in dB between the output power and noise power.
11. What is the crosstalk of an amplifier?
Crosstalk is a measure of how much undesirable left signal is mixed with right output.
The larger the number following the minus sign (i.e. -60dB is not as good as -100dB)
the greater the stereo separation.
12. Describe the classes of audio amplifiers:
a. Class A: The defining principle of Class A operation is that all of an amplifier’s
output devices must be conducting through the full 360 degree cycle of a
waveform.
ADVANTAGES:
➔ Simple
➔ Reduced distortion
DISADVANTAGES:
➔ Efficiency (15-35%)
b. Class B: Only half the output devices are conducting at any given time: one
half covers the +180 degree portion of the waveform, while the other covers
the -180 degree section.
ADVANTAGES:
➔ More efficiency than Class A (78,5%)
DISADVANTAGES:
➔ Crossover distortion
c. Class AB: It combines the best of Class A and Class B in order to create an
amplifier without the drawbacks of either.
ADVANTAGES:
➔ Efficiency (50-70%)
 ➔ No crossover distortion
d. Class G&H: they are variations upon the theme of Class A/B.
ADVANTAGES:
➔ Reduced power consumption.
➔ Improved efficiency over Class A/B.
DISADVANTAGES:
➔ Cost
e. Class D: Class D amplifiers rapidly switch the output devices between the off
and on state.
ADVANTAGES:
➔ High efficiency (90%)
DISADVANTAGES:
➔ Pulse width modulators operating at relatively low frequencies
can compromise high frequency audio reproduction.
➔ Some designs produce varying sound quality depending on
speaker load.
13. We have a 50W, 8Ω amplifier. The speakers connected to the amplifier are 32Ω
each.

Answer:

a. Calculate the power dissipated in each speaker.

b. Assuming we are using four speakers of the same impedance, what
would be the optimal speakers to be used in this scheme?
c. Calculate each speaker’s power with the speakers chosen in the last
question.
14. An amplifier of 18W, 8Ω has connected to its output two speakers in series: one of
4Ω and the other of 8Ω. Calculate:
a. Total power the amplifier gives to the speakers.
b. Power dissipated in each speaker.
15. An amplifier of 8W, 4Ω has connected to its output three speakers in parallel: two of
16Ω and the other of 8Ω. Calculate:
a. Total power the amplifier gives to the speakers.
b. Power dissipated in each speaker.
16. Explain the difference between low impedance and high impedance speakers.

17. Draw the frequency response of Low Pass Filter, High Pass Filter, Band Pass Filter
and Band Reject Filter.
18. Differences between passive and active filters.
Active: They only use active components (op amps) and have an external power
supply.
Passive: They only use passive components (capacitors, resistors, inductors) and do
not need an external power supply.
19. What is samplig rate?
Number of samples per unit of time.
20. What is data resolution?
Size of data (bits) per sample.
21. What is the standard sampling rate and data resolution of CD?
Sampling rate: 44.1 kHz.
Data resolution: 16 bits.
22. Define data size:
Size of encoded data.
23. Define encoded time:
Duration of encoded fragments.
24. Define bit rate:
Encoded bits per second.
25. What would be the data size (in bits) of a song of 2 minutes 34 seconds
recorded in a CD?
Sampling rate: 44100 Hz.
Data resolution: 16 bits.
Channels(N):2.
T=2 min 34 s -> 154s.
R=sampling rate*dataResolution*N->R=44100*16*2=1.411.200.
L=R*T=1.411.200*154=217.234.800 bits.
26. What would be the previous data size in MB?
 To Bits -> bytes /8
217.234.800/8=27.154.350 Bytes.
Bytes->KB->MB
Bytes->KB
27.154.350/1024=26517,9 KB
KB->MB
26517,9/1024=25,89 MB
27. What is compression?
Is the key to store the same signal within smaller numbers.
28. Explain, with your own words, the basic compression.
Store the variations between samples instead of storing the samples
themselves.
29. Which two types of compression do we have and what is the difference
between them?
Lossless: lower R but keeping quality parameters.
Lossy: even lower R by assuming some quality penalty.
30. What is PCM?
A digital technique that involves sampling an analog signal at regular
intervals and coding the measured amplitude into a series of binary
values, which are transmitted by modulation of a pulsed carrier.
31. Classify the following audio codecs in Uncompressed, lossless compress or
lossy compress:
a. WAV: Uncompressed.
b. AIFF: Uncompressed.
c. FLAC: Lossless compress.
d. WavPack: Lossless compress.
e. ALAC: Lossless compress.
f. MP3: Lossy compress.
g. OGG: Lossy compress.
h. AAC: Lossy compress.
i. WMA: Lossy compress.
32. Which audio codecs are based on PCM?
WAV.
33. Which audio codecs were created by Microsoft?
WAV.
34. Which audio codecs were created by Apple?
ALAC and AIFF.
35. What do we mean when we say that WavPack is hybrid?
This algorithm provides two files, one lossy and one to recover the
original.
36. Which is the most common format of lossy compression?
MP3.
37. Why do we convert analog audio to digital?
To storage and use in digital systems.
38. Draw the block diagram of a system from a microphone to a speaker that
converts analog microphone signals into digital and back to analog to the
speaker. Make your own block diagram based on your search on the Internet
but do not paste an image found on it.

39. Define the following terms in audio conversion:

a. Sampling: Take samples of an analog signal.

b. Quantization: Mapping values of the samples to other values.

c. Encoding: Convert analog values into digital values.
40. Determine the maximum frequency of a sound signal according to the
sampling frequencies of the following applications:
a. Voice communication service: fs = 8000 Hz
8000/2=4000Hz.
b. Low quality audiovisual production: fs= 32000 Hz
32000/2=16000Hz.
41. How is optical storage writing and reading data?
Laser.
42. Why are optical discs only used mostly to long-term archiving and data
backup?
Lower storage capacity and slower than HDDs and SSDs.
43. Which is the commercial optical storage for audio?
CD.
44. All the optical storage standards are same size.
True.
45. Why Blu-ray discs can have larger storage capacity than CD and DVD?
Because the blue light laser used with Blu-ray discs has a shorter
wavelength than red laser light, 25 GBs of storage can be encoded on a
single layer of a 12 cm Blu-ray disc.
46. What are the advantages of optical storage?
The durability: It isn't vulnerable to data loss due to power failure like volatile
memory.

Storage: Inexpensive to manufacture although costs can vary depending on

the type of discs and how they're used.
47. What Is Digital Data Storage?
Is essentially the recording of digital information in a storage medium,
usually by electronic means.
48. Mention the devices that use magnetic storage:
Hard Disk Drives, Floppy Disks and Tapes.
49. Mention the optical storage devices:
Compact Discs and DVD and Blu-ray Discs.
50. Which devices took place of the CD and why?
DVD and Blu-ray Discs because of their much greater storage capacity.
51. Advantages and disadvantages of SSD comparing it with HDD:
Advantages: A faster read/write speed, noiseless operation, greater
reliability, and lower power consumption.
Disadvantages: Big cost, with a lower capacity equivalently HDD.
52. Describe the common causes of digital data loss:
Accidental deletions: This is a very common problem and has happened to
most people who handle data (deleting or reformatting it will also cause data
loss).

Power failures: A loss of power can be harmful or destructive, especially in

cases where the loss of power is sudden (surges are also dangerous).

Spills, drops, and other physical accidents: Anything that causes physical
damage to the storage device can damage data or prevent access to it.

Viruses and other forms of malware: Many modern forms of digital data
storage are on the Internet. Many people who use these tools are dedicated
to stealing or corrupting the devices that store information or even the OS.

Theft: Whether through theft, robbery, robbery or other forms of theft, you can
lose your entire device and information.

Fires, floods, explosions and other catastrophic events: All of them can
destroy large amounts of data. That's why data is always backed up
somewhere else.