How To Choose And Set Up A Stereo Amplifier

Looking for a stereo amplifier to give your system a new lease of life? Here’s all you need to know

While we like the idea of plug-and-play set-ups as much as anyone, there’s more to getting the best out of a stereo amplifier than simply powering it up on a hi-fi rack, plugging in speakers and going wild with the volume dial.

Wondering where to start? Fear not; we’ll run you through the basics here.

Integrated vs pre/power

If you’ve already bought your amplifier and are now eyeing it up a touch warily with a view to getting started, you may wish to skip straight to the ‘system matching’ section.

But if you’re reading this before you’ve chosen the amp needed to drive your system, you have an important decision to make. Do you go integrated or separate pre/power kit?

The former is the most simple, convenient and space-saving option, packing both preand power amplification into one chassis. This means everything has been tuned together, saving you the work that goes into matching separate amplifiers.

Two-box amplifiers, on the other hand, involve splitting pre-amplification (input selection and volume control, fundamentally) from power amplification (go on, guess). The idea is to keep the sensitive preamp circuitry (and the delicate audio signals flowing through it) away from the electrically noisy high-current power amplifier section.

Having separate power supply sections helps to improve the sound too. So this way you double your component count but, as long as your pre- and power-amplifiers function together sympathetically, you should enjoy better performance.

The most obvious way of selecting pre- and power amplification that works together well is by sticking within one brand’s range. Invariably they will have been tuned to work well as a pair.