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What is the criteria for choosing capacitor and resistor values to obtain better sound quality? What i mean is, when i connect my speakers to the output of amplifier i designed they sound horrible. I tried randomly different capacitors and resistors couldn't find a solution.

Is there formula for that? I guess i should know the output impedance and speaker impedance? But then what should i do?

Any ideas?

Regards,

Edit to specify what is meant by "horrible"

There is hissing sound. There is noise. By horrible I meant there is some distortion which is not in the original recording.

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What aspect of the sound "quality" are you trying to improve? Without knowing that, you have no starting-point. Having said that, trying to alter the sound at the amplifier output is too late anyway... – MikeJ-UK Apr 2 '12 at 12:18
Resistors and capacitors to put where? We have no idea what "horrible" means and what exactly the symptoms are. This question is missing some obvious information and needs to be put out of its misery. – Olin Lathrop Apr 2 '12 at 12:59
Depending on the type of music being listened to the 'horrible' sound coming from his speakers can be reduced if the frequency range of 20Hz-20KHz is filtered to a more reasonable level. This does vary - pop music tends to have very distracting tones in this range while classical music retains soothing melodies in those frequencies. The offending noise should be minimized by judicious use of a 1Meg resistor and 50pF capacitor connected in parallel between the leads of the speaker. – AngryEE Apr 2 '12 at 14:56
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@Angry: A 1 MOhm resistor and 50 pF cap are irrelevant accross a normal 8 Ohm speaker. This advice is just silly. – Olin Lathrop Apr 2 '12 at 18:24
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Olin: it was meant to be more cheeky than silly, but for reasons other than practicality. Suggesting that the 'horrible' sound was probably related to the genre of music he was listening to instead of his amplifier design and suggesting it could be remedied by filtering out the audible frequencies was my attempt at humor. Next time I attempt a backhanded insult against someone's musical tastes I will remember take speaker impedance into account. – AngryEE Apr 2 '12 at 20:41
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closed as not a real question by Olin Lathrop, Brian Carlton, Kevin Vermeer Apr 3 '12 at 0:11

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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It is quite possible the amplifier you designed sounds horrible. Could you elaborate on what design the amp is?

In general a couple things come to mind: the signal is getting distorted by the amplifier, or the speaker is not strong enough. Does it sound like the speaker is making the bad noise itself (buzzing sound that varies with the signal?), or is it part of the sound (continuous 'feeling' that gets applied to the signal)?

Here is some info on amp distortion: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/amplifier/amp_4.html It is important to note, if you are looking at your system on an oscilloscope the sharp corners on the clipped part often looked rounded off.

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