It warms the music, the soul, and a good part of your room ![]()
My Dreadnaught is biased pretty high into Class A, and indeed does generate plenty of heat at idle. I leave it off for the most part, since it consumes something like 225W at idle across all four channels. Just need to let it warm up for a bit before any listening session. Someday I may try to sell it and buy something that uses less juice overall, but I enjoy how it sounds and it looks pretty kickass sitting there so I don’t know.
In a Class A amplifier (single-ended or push-pull), the output transistors (or tubes) are always conducting current, even when there’s no audio signal (i.e., during silence).
• They are biased so that they operate in their most linear region over the entire 360° of the audio waveform.
• The full quiescent (idle) current flows constantly, regardless of how loud you’re playing. This means the amplifier is dissipating maximum heat even when no music is playing.
Yep I get it now. It is always burning roughly half the max voltage potential. That becomes the typical 0 point where half the wave can go above and the other half below. Biasing to get max amplitude between 0v and max voltage (not prematurely clipping at only the high or low point).
It’s drawing FULL power (or close to it) from the wall constantly.