Gilderfluke&Co Amp-50 Class D Stereo Audio Amplifier - Manual

Amp-50 Configuration & Installation
Before the Amp-50 can be used, you will need to attach speakers, power supply and a line
level audio source.
Speaker Outputs:
The Amp-50 is a ‘Class-
D’ design. Its efficiency is
near 90%. If you feed 50
Watts of 24 vdc into the
Amp-50’s amplifier, you
will get almost 50 Watts
into your speakers. ‘Lin-
ear’ amplifiers have only
about
20% efficiency.
Fully 80% of the power
you put into them goes
into the heatsink as waste
heat. A 50 Watt linear
amplifier would only feed
10 Watts of power into
your speakers, and 40
Watts into the heatsink.
This makes the Amp-
50’s amplifier roughly
equivalent
to what
would be a 200 Watt
linear amplifier!
If you are going to run
your speakers at high
SPLs, you will need to select speakers that can
handle at least a 100 Watts or more continuous
power. Smaller speakers may clip or be damaged if
run at too high an output power level from the Amp-
50.
The amplifier outputs from the Amp-50 can be used
with speakers of four to eight ohms impedance. As
with any amplifier, you can series/parallel any num-
ber of speakers, so long as the impedance remains
within limits.
The Amp-50 is well protected from short circuits and
overheating. You can stick a screwdriver right
across the speaker terminals! The Amp-50 will go
back to work a moment after a fault is removed. If
the speaker impedance is too low and you are run-
ning at a high volume level, the amplifier may start
to cut out. If you hear this, check the power supply
voltage. If the input voltage is dropping, you might
simply be drawing too much power for the power
supply and a larger supply may fix your problem. If
the power supply is OK, and you can’t increase the
speaker impedance, then you might simply be ask-
ing too much of the Amp-50’s amplifier, and need to
turn down the volume a tad.
To comply with FCC and CE standards for radio fre-
quency emissions, you should use conduit or
shielded speaker wires with the Amp-50. The shield
should be attached to the power supply ‘negative’
terminal, which is immediately adjacent to the
speaker terminals. Shielding the speaker lines will
not affect the sound quality from the Amp-50, but
will make the FCC and CE folks happy. Shielded
speaker lines were used during all CE/FCC certifica-
tion testing.
Bridged Amplifier: If you need
a mono output with more
‘oomph’, the Amp-50 can be
‘bridged’.
Bridging will
only have an effect with
lower impedance speak-
ers You won’t hear a bit
of difference if you are
using an
eight ohm
speaker. The only audio
which is amplified comes
from the ‘left’ input. The
wiring to ‘bridge’ the am-
plifier is a little different
than on a linear amplifier.
The speaker is wired in
parallel to both right and
left speaker outputs, and
the jumper inside the Amp-
50 is moved to the ‘bridged’ posi-
tion. Wiring the speakers for a
‘bridged’ output with-
out
moving this
jumper can damage
the Amp-50.
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840–9484 • 800/776–5972 • fax 818/840–9485
East Coast/Florida Office • 7041 Grand National Drive • Suite 128d • Orlando, Fl. 32819 • 407/354–5954 • fax 407/354–5955
page 1 of 3 • © February 9, 2007 Gilderfluke & Co. DCM
Amp-50
Gilderfluke & Company
Burbank, California
Left Right
Line In Line In Volume Volume
Right Left
12-24 vdc
Power
(4Ω to 8Ω)
Speakers
Line Level
Source
Amp-50
Gilderfluke & Company
Burbank, California
Left Right
Line In Line In Volume Volume
Right Left
12-24 vdc
Power
(4Ω to 8Ω)
Speakers
Line Level
Source