History
The audio amplifier was invented in 1909 by Lee De Forest when he invented the triode vacuum tube. The triode was a three terminal device with a control grid that can modulate the flow of electrons from the filament to the plate. The triode vacuum amplifier was used to make the first AM radio.
Early audio power amplifiers were based on vacuum tubes (also known as valves), and some of these achieved notably high quality (e.g., the Williamson amplifier of 1947-9). Most modern audio amplifiers are based on solid state devices (transistors such as BJTs, FETs and MOSFETs), but there are still some who prefer tube-based amplifiers, and the valve sound. Audio power amplifiers based on transistors became practical with the wide availability of inexpensive transistors in the late 1960s.
Read more about this topic: Audio Power Amplifier
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