Negative Feedback a deal killer?

"better dynamic range then all others based on tiny switching power supplies (again - huge exception is Jeff Rowland)"

Not only that most (if not all) of Rowland Icepower amps use SMPS supplies but he uses them as well in Capri preamp and new generation of class AB amps. Rowland amps like 102, 201, 501 use standard B&O modules with built in SMPS.

Hello Kijanki,

To talk, as you did above, about Jeff Rowland (switching) power supplies and not to mention that he is first in the high fidelity audio world (to the best of my knowledge) who produced probably the most technologically advanced power supplies with fully or partially regulated PFC (power factor correction)and DC:DC converter (allowing safe high voltage headroom - thus his dynamic range is "exception" from all other SMPS in audio,I mentioned) is the same as to visit a zoo and miss the elephant there.

I hate to go personal but I feel that many of your posts are not for the discussion or observation or sharing experience but for "Gotha" purposes. Here, you missed and missed by miles.

Magfan, to answer your question, in a power amplifier of conventional design (not class D IOW) the problem you face if you use local feedback as opposed to global is the issue of gain. IOW if the stage that the feedback is around does not have a lot of gain, it may not help you all that much. Where this really plays a role is in the output section, wherein if the amplifier is to conform to the ideals of the Voltage Paradigm (IOW, be a voltage source), there is rarely enough gain in the output section for said local feedback to do the job.

I did say rarely: the Ayre amplifier is able to be a voltage source without any feedback.

Anyway, you encounter many of the same problems with local feedback as you do with global, but overall I would say they are less pronounced, as (in theory) a single stage is going have a shorter propagation delay than an entire amplifier. This will tend to push the time domain issues to manifest at a higher frequency. That does have its good and bad side, so again a lot depends on the actual design!

How I see all this is very simple: as long as the amplifier fails to add **any** distortion to the 5th, 7th and 9th harmonics, then it all should be good. It will be even better if the lower ordered harmonic distortions fail to appear as well, although this is far less important.

Dob,

Mentioned Rowland 102, 201, 501 have standard SMPS without anything coming from Rowland. You can buy amplifiers with built in PFC like model 312 or buy additional power supply but most of Rowland Icepower amps have only standard B&O modules with integrated SMPS.

Please check power amp listed in my system before you make another silly personal remark involving elephants.

Magfan - local feedbacks are always better than global one but their application is limited.

Class AB amp design has to start with excellent linearity and wide bandwidth since one of conditions to eliminate TIM is to limit bandwidth at the input to one amp had before feedback was applied. Feedback can fix inherent class AB problems like "gm doubling" (different gains for small and large signals) but cannot fix poor design. AFAIK there is always some form of feedback (local one) even in zero feedback amp.