Signal/Noise Ratio

[Scorpion 10+ year member]

I have been looking at several amps to power my Comp VR 10's and I understand all the specs but one. What is Signal/Noise ratio??

Any suggestions as to what would be the best amp for the money ($200)?? I am looking at Lanzars Vibe 241 (375x2 @ 2 ohm) and the Profile CL800 (300x2 @ 2 Ohm). The speakers are Comp VR 10" DVC 2 Ohm.

Click to read more...

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

In order to fully understand any spec, you must first find out if the taken spec was made with the exact same testing procedures. In pretty much all cases the spec taken is not made on the same playing field, thus what can look to be a superior spec can in fact be a inferior spec when compared to a similar spec taken with a much superior and fair testing procedure.

 

[Scorpion 10+ year member]

Your statement is not what I asked. I understand that all companies have different specs for different products, there is to my knowledge no standard testing procedure. I know what you are talking about and I agree with you, there should be a standard testing procedure instituted with products of similar quality. My question still stands though: What is the Signal/Noise Ratio on amplifiers indicate??

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

The amount of signal the amp produces relative the inherent noise that's introduced during amplification.

If the S/N is 90 that means that if you're getting 90dB worth of music you'll have 1dB of noise.

Even cheap amps have S/N's that are good enough that it doesn't really matter. We can't tell the difference between 80 and 110, but to get an amp that measures over 100 you will generally have to pay for it $$.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Standard measurement procedure for s/n ratio is to measure the output voltage at full power, then remove the input RCA's and measure the output voltage again with no signal. The 2nd measurement is the noise that the amp makes at that gain setting.

S/N ratio is then calculated as:

20* log V1/V2

It's a logarithmic ratio, expressed in dB. In practical terms 80 dB means the signal output is 10,000 times higher than the noise. 90dB is 31,622 times more signal than noise and 100 dB is 100,000 times.

If you want to know the actual ratio, divide the dB by 20 and take the anti-log of the result.