Amplifier Classes Explained | Boss Katana Artist

hello guys Colin here this is the katana artist the flagship saws the amplifier from boss one of his biggest selling features is that it has a class II B power stage where most solace the amps and the guitar world at least are Class D amplifiers quite often tried to sell themselves on the class that we are Class A or Class B Class A B or Class D but what the hell does any of that mean there's a really that much of a difference and what does it mean in real terms for a guitarist let's take a look and find out the class of an amplifier is essentially what methods and elements are used to perform the amplification there are many ways to achieve the results of making things loader so it's convenient for amp designers to group these methods into classes each classes on benefits and drawbacks compared to the others and for the sake of this video will focus on the mean to efficiency and linearity efficiency as the name suggests has how efficient the amplifier is how much of its power actually goes into making the signal loader and how much is wasted lost to the environment as heat linearity is the ability of an amplifier to reproduce the small input signal as a letter signal but still retain all of its details the grater and amplifiers linearity the more the amplified signal is a true representation of the input so naturally we seek to have an amplifier that can do both high efficiency and high linearity unfortunately the universe conspires against us for us to gain one we must sacrifice the other so with that in mind I'm going to run through the four main types of amplifier classes you'll find in the guitar world and Oakland where they sit on the efficiency and linearity scale Class E is the simplest form of amplification requiring the fewest components you me will appear to the term single indeed in relation to amplifiers this means that there's only one output device via valve or a transistor in the active circuit Class E is the only way to achieve single-ended operation all other classes that we're going to look at require peers of output devices and a Class A amplifier the output device is conducting over the entire range of the input signal it's always on this towards the amplifier incredible linearity often been held aloft by audiophiles as the holy grail of audio reproduction however having the output device constantly conducting mix the amplifier horribly inefficient real-world numbers / Class C amplifiers are between 15 and 30 percent efficient with the rest of the power being lost as heat this necessitates Class E amps being large and heavy due to the neater ventilation or heat sinking which often makes them more expensive plus they require a lot of power so you won't see very many battery-powered Class E amps actually one of the only places you still find Class E amplification is in guitar amps Boutique single ended valve amplifiers can be large heavy and an efficient as part of their appeal we put up with all those negatives for dam tones bra but if we want to make amplifiers a little more practical and cost-effective we need a different solution Class B was an attempt to improve efficiency by using a pair of output devices and a push-pull arrangement how this works is that one device will shoulder the Lord for the positive half of the input signal and then pass the Lord on to the other device for the negative half with only half the output devices operating at any given time we get huge improvements in efficiency with a theoretical maximum of around 80% however splitting the input signal into two halves for amplification presents a problem when the amplified signal is recombined the amplified waveform doesn't match up well at the handover point between the two output devices this is called crossover Distortion and there's a huge problem if you're trying to accurately recreate an audio signal this pure linearity means that while much more efficient Class B amplifiers don't see much use but that's not the same we can't make them better Class A B is the most common class of amplifier being the best compromise between efficiency and linearity it operates in the same way as Class B but instead of dealing with only one half of the input signal each output device continues conducting for more than half the time when recombining the amplified signal less reduces the handover gap to the point where crossover distortion is inaudible or eliminated entirely this produces linearity very close to Class C amplifier but also improves upon efficiency with numbers anywhere between 50 and 70 percent in fact at low wattage ease Class A B operates as push-pull Class E achieving the best possible tonality but want on your amplifier into a bonfire when you crank up the final piece of this puzzle is Class D which is a very different beast it throws out linearity all together in favor of using pulse width modulation to represent the input signal being amplified the input signal is converted into a series of pulses the width of each pulse being proportional to the analog signal a widely used technique to get analog performance from a digital operation PWM allows for the output devices to be rapidly switched on and off yielding efficiencies in excess of 90 percent these ultra efficient amplifiers give off very little heat allowing devices to be made much more compact as a require little to no ventilation or heat sinking since barely any energy is lost they can also be powered from batteries meaning very small portable amplifiers can be produced cheaply of course the payoff here is that Class D designs need to be carefully filtered to remove the high-frequency components of PWM switching from the amplified signal relatively low frequency PWM operation can adversely affect high-frequency audio reproduction for that reason and some designs can give different sound qualities depending on the speaker load while some high-end Class D amplifiers are starting to rival Class A B in terms of sound quality these are still quite expensive and remove the low price tag benefit of having a Class D amplifier still with me good let's get back to the katana artists then boss have opted to design this as a class EB rather than Class D mean improved linearity and sound quality should be to this amps benefit making it sound more like a real amplifier than other saws the amps on the market more importantly the push-pull nature of the amplifier should allow it to feel and respond in a way that's familiar to guitarists who have used valve amplifiers it's always a big complaint of swords they amplify they just don't behave like a vowel amp even if these good and a big part of that comes down to ho Class D amplifiers utilize an entirely different amplification method than conventional valve amplifiers the katana seeks to rectify this but that's enough thievery none of this matters if the katana can't deliver on those promises so let's hear how it sounds [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] well the katana has recording oats and USB functionality to access more sermons through its software I'm not interested in exploring any of that here why I want to know is how well this operates as a standard traditional amplifier it boasts a specially designed was a craft speaker and will be simply criminal not to make this up and hear how it performs all the signs in the previous track and the ones you're about to hear are accessible through the front panel of the amplifier without any need to connect best to a computer any effects we once built into the amp and I'm gonna focus mainly on the rock and metal tones as distortion as usually the Achilles heel of solace the amps [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well after hearing that is no surprise by the katana rain just dominated the budget market the last year or so since its release the sounds available are not only wide-ranging but punch well above the price point of the amplifier this doesn't sound as sterile as many will have come to expect from source the amplifiers and rather are still some subtle nuances that distinguish valve amplifiers messing here it will be very difficult for many to tell the difference most importantly the interaction between player and amplifier is phenomenal it responds to playing naturally and as a touch and feel it makes me forget I'm not using one of my valve amplifiers playing through the katana artist is a rich and enjoyable experience the illusion made to switch off from the equipment and just focus on the noises that you're making the disconnect I often feel with saws the amplifiers just isn't there and I think this can be attributed in part to the decision by boss to meet less a Class A B amplifier my familiarity to the response and sound of push-pull operation is satiated with a katana artist recording with this was super easy that was a speaker is incredible for clothes making and there's more than enough volume on tap to get the coin moving although if making a cabinet is still a mystery to you or you want to record without shaking the walls and the recording it will make silent recording a breeze while still offering all that Class E B power lamp benefit the only dent in the armor is in the construction of the cabinet itself it's clear that this is where money has been saved to load up the amp with more features the artist is a step towards making a katana that's a viable option for gigging musicians and not just a practice tool for the bedroom it's got the volume the speaker and the performance but the construction doesn't feel robust enough to deal with the abuse and riggers an amplifier will receive on the road it's certainly not as solid as other combo amps I've owned for studio and session work as well as home use I don't see this as an issue but I would take special care if I was throwing this from van to stage night after night all in all I'm exceptionally impressed with the katana artist in terms of sound quality responsiveness to playing and ease of use I think it absolutely delivers on its promise that it's Class E B power section is the dominant choice over Class D amplifiers it is in the price point where you could get a genuine or valve amplifier for the same money but in messae on all the features effects and raw power going that direction the katana artist is a lot of amplifier for the money and doesn't feel or sound like the compromise other solid-state amps can be and if you've liked this video and you want to see more content from me then you can hit the subscribe button that will notify upon your content as it comes oh my pH Jones also therefore exclusive secret stuff if you want to support me father and there's other videos you may not have seen that's all for now guys give a like and I'll see you later

Channel: CSGuitars

Views: 189,380

Rating: 4.9213443 out of 5

Keywords: CSGuitars, Colin, all the gain, guitcon, scotland, victory, pickups, science, will it shred, whats the difference, studio, recording, guitar, amplifier, pedal, boss, roland, amplifier class, class a, class ab, class a/b, class d, power, what are, what does, explained, katana, artist, waza, metal zone

Id: XNUeYcpH6lU

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/kthshly]

I never thought learning about amp classes could be so fun. Also, this video sheds some light on why the Katana series gives tube amps a run for their money.