Class A Power in A/B amplifiers?


Is there a general industry standard for the amount of Class A power in Class A/B amplifiers?For instance SimAudio has always touted that they run Class A for the first 5 watts.Curious how other higher end manufacturers approach this..
freediver
No. Because there is no standard on what type of output stage to use. The bias current is set to give the best performance for the type of output stage in terms of linearity and distortion, while keeping an eye on the power dissipation (heat sinking is very expensive).

There really is no such class as Class AB, it is used to describe the mode of operation when a Class A amp hits a  low impedance and one of the pairs of output transistors stops conducting. Almost all amps are Class B, where they are biased just above the transistor Vbe so as to keep the transistors conducting in that dead band from -0.7 to +0.7 volts to avoid crossover distortion. Increasing the bias beyond that point (but less than Class A) may provide benefit by reducing crossover distortion further but you pay a price with gm doubling distortion.

How much above that minimum Vbe setting do manufacturers bias is done to maximize performance. For example, a Darlington output stage requires about 100ma of bias and a complimentary feedback pair output stage requires about a tenth of that for best performance. So it is not possible to standardize something like this.


My Coda CSIB integrated gives you 3 power choices,I choose the lowest power.
my integrated 1st watts in pure class A says 18 watts ,it’s closer to 20 ,then 150,300, 600 wpc , and incredible 120 amps short term available for control ,and Huge potted 3kva  transformer ,
and pure class-A  preamplifier section  made in USA ,
I know of nothing under $10k that is even remotely close in  many areas ,a true High end bargain.stereo times was spot on in their review ,after buying it I could not agree more .
Some interesting insight.
@gs5556"There really is no such class as Class AB, it is used to describe the mode of operation when a Class A amp hits a low impedance and one of the pairs of output transistors stops conducting"..Would this mean that by keeping the load impedance stable & highish it would keep the amplifier operating in Class A longer?
Moot points; class D ihas already supassed these others. See my review of Legacy Audio i.V4 Ultra at Dagogo.com 

Imo, such conversations are remnants of a past era of amplification.