the.com/amplifier
a polite machine that turns a whisper into a problem for your neighbors
means A device that increases the strength of a signal — most familiarly, one that makes sound louder.
from From the verb 'amplify,' which came through Old French 'amplifier' from Latin 'amplificare' — 'ampliare,' to enlarge or widen (from 'amplus,' large or spacious), plus '-ficare,' to make. So at root an amplifier is simply a 'maker-larger.' The Latin 'amplus' is the same ancestor that gives us 'ample.' The electrical sense, the box that boosts a current or a guitar's growl, is a much later technical borrowing of this old word for 'making bigger.'
- power myth
- more watts means louder slowly, not twice as loud
- tube revival
- vacuum tubes outlived their own obituary by decades
- clipping
- distortion happens when an amp runs out of room
- feedback loop
- mic plus speaker creates that infamous howling shriek
- first one
- De Forest's 1906 tube amplified faint radio signals
marshall jcm800 — 50-watt tube amplifier used by metallica, led zeppelin, and countless rock bands since 1981
fender twin reverb — 100-watt combo amp with spring reverb built-in, the standard studio and live amplifier since 1963
vox ac30 — british 30-watt tube amp used by the who, pink floyd, and u2 starting in 1958