Arfa Daily wrote:

"tlbs" wrote in message
ups.com...

N Cook wrote:

The term escapes me for when say negative going audio output is absent
and
only positive going is present, or vice versa. ?


If the audio voltage is "low level" -- under 1 volt peak, and the
amplifier output is a push-pull type especially class B, then it is
probably crossover distortion.

If the audio voltage you see is well over 1 volt peak (with no negative
voltage swing), then what the other guys above said is correct, but
there is no standard term for that kind of distortion I can think of
other than "rectification".


Crossover distortion is a very specific type of distortion that results from
incorrect bias in a class B output stage. That incorrect bias causes the
'handover' from one output device to the other, to not take place in a
smooth manner, due to one or other of the devices not being lifted off the
non-linear part of the bottom end of its curve at the zero drive point. It
does not result in one half of the signal being missing.

When one half of the signal is going missing, due to either an output or
drive fault, I suppose at a pinch, you could apply the term 'rectification'
on the grounds that the resulting waveform would look like it had been
passed through a single diode, but to make this connection between a faulty
amplifier, and what is normally associated with being a power supply
function, is tenuous at best, and downright misleading at worst. I still say
that the only term that I have seen applied to this type of distortion
occuring in an amplifier, is asymmetry.

Arfa


I suppose you could call it a level-shifted clip if you don't like
rectification. Asymmetry seems a bit broad to me.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .