Power Amplifiers

The TeddyAmp is a family of high end amplifiers designed to provide a pure and realistic sound, which contributes to many enjoyable and exciting listening hours without fatigue.

The TeddyAmp power amplifiers have output power ranging from 60 to 100W in stereo, mono-block, and bi-amp mono-block configurations. All amplifiers are based on the same design concepts and housed in a relatively compact enclosure.

Each of the power amplifier channels is powered by four ultra low noise regulators (eight regulators in the case of mono-blocks) which provide stable current to the power amplifiers.

To illustrate the importance of a power supply in a power amplifier imagine that you need to precisely move a heavy weight back and forth. In order to do so you will need something stable to hold as a reference. Now imagine that your reference moves while you pull or release it, your task will become very difficult and the movement of the weight cannot be precise.

The power supply is the amplifier's reference. While no power supply is perfect, actually they are almost always quite far from that.

The transformer which is the heart of the power supply is made of copper wire which has its own impedance. Due to that impedance, when current is drawn from the transformer its output voltage drops, usually by 3-10% depending on the transformer quality and the current being drawn. To minimize this effect most manufacturers use large oversized transformers that have lower impedance, and huge smoothing capacitors that serve as power reserve. Even with oversized transformers and a large bank of huge capacitors the ripple on the power rail remains in the order of several volts! Furthermore, this power is rarely filtered and contains noise at all audible frequencies, having a detrimental effect on sound quality.

To overcome this problem, some high end manufacturers use linear regulators in their power supplies. Linear regulators which are based on a feedback mechanism indeed reduce the ripple, but still suffer from a relatively high level of noise and other deficiencies inherent to way they operate.

The TeddyAmp is based on a different approach. It uses a proprietary ultra low noise zero feedback regulator, a high power version of the SueprTeddyReg, which provides clean and stable power supply to the amplifier. This results in a natural sound with quite background which reveals every micro detail of the music, while maintaining a powerful and controlled bass.

In addition to the sound advantages, using this power supply it is possible to build reasonably sized amplifiers with a sound quality which surpasses much larger and heavier amplifiers. A 60W TeddyAmp sounds much bigger and controlled than many 100-200W amplifiers costing several times its price, and indeed, the amount of controlled bass that the TeddyAmp provides is often among the first things that strikes the listener.

A discrete component input buffer stage, based on a zero feedback JFET proprietary design at the input of the TeddyAmp improves impedance matching and provides a silky sound, typical to high quality valve amplifiers. The input buffer stage is powered by a pair of ultra-low noise SuperTeddyRegs.

The TeddyAmp is built using the best available components: selected low noise JFET transistors, low noise Tantalum and PPS capacitors, and WBT NextGen sockets and binding posts. All components are mounted on a four layer immersion gold FR4 PCB with a star ground topology.