Class A/B vs Class H

This is of course, highly-inefficient. ~25% when playing music and 0% efficient when no music is being played.
But since it doesn’t have to transition to another set of transistors, it is claimed to be the best sounding. (or at least this used to be true, back in the 80’s… )

Class-AB is like A but with two sets, one doing the positive and the other the negative parts of the wave.
This gives double the efficiency and double the cooling. ~50% when playing music and 50% when not.

Class-H is like AB but with a variable power-supply/bias voltage, so that the PS and transistors are only working as hard as necessary to produce a clean signal.
This produces even higher power ratings for a given weight while remaining cool, reducing the need to engage fans, and ever so slightly more efficient. ~50-60% when playing and 75% when not.

Class-D is entirely different. Instead of leaving the transistors on fully, it only turns them on for as long as necessary and as hard as necessary to produce the signal.
While this is really efficient 60-98% when playing music and 90-99% when not… it also adds lots of HF distortion that needs to be filtered out, the HF extension is limited by the switching frequency and the HF filters.
For this reason they were only used in subwoofers for years and years…

The Gen-3 is a hybrid.
It uses a switching power supply to produce DC (which doesn’t have the HF problem) and then a conventional Class-H design to power the speakers.
This avoids needing a 100lb torodial transformer and Class-AB DC power supply, which saves on shipping and production costs, decreases weight and increases efficiency, but rarely does a company pass on those savings to the customer. That said, Emo does a better job at keeping prices low than almost any other company.
The only downside is making the SMPS strong enough to handle the needed RMS load, I haven’t seen the benchtests but I would imagine that Emo has done their homework in this regard.

There are many PC’s with 1-2kW SMPS’s these days for only ~$200-400 so it’s not unheard of… CPU’s and GPU’s have a high RMS load these days.
Quad SLI is pushing the limits of a 15A 1800watt RMS breaker in most cases…

Class-A means that there is only one set of transistors, and that they are turned on 100% all the time.This is of course, highly-inefficient. ~25% when playing music and 0% efficient when no music is being played.But since it doesn’t have to transition to another set of transistors, it is claimed to be the best sounding. (or at least this used to be true, back in the 80’s…Class-AB is like A but with two sets, one doing the positive and the other the negative parts of the wave.This gives double the efficiency and double the cooling. ~50% when playing music and 50% when not.Class-H is like AB but with a variable power-supply/bias voltage, so that the PS and transistors are only working as hard as necessary to produce a clean signal.This produces even higher power ratings for a given weight while remaining cool, reducing the need to engage fans, and ever so slightly more efficient. ~50-60% when playing and 75% when not.Class-D is entirely different. Instead of leaving the transistors on fully, it only turns them on for as long as necessary and as hard as necessary to produce the signal.While this is really efficient 60-98% when playing music and 90-99% when not… it also adds lots of HF distortion that needs to be filtered out, the HF extension is limited by the switching frequency and the HF filters.For this reason they were only used in subwoofers for years and years…The Gen-3 is a hybrid.It uses a switching power supply to produce DC (which doesn’t have the HF problem) and then a conventional Class-H design to power the speakers.This avoids needing a 100lb torodial transformer and Class-AB DC power supply, which saves on shipping and production costs, decreases weight and increases efficiency, but rarely does a company pass on those savings to the customer. That said, Emo does a better job at keeping prices low than almost any other company.The only downside is making the SMPS strong enough to handle the needed RMS load, I haven’t seen the benchtests but I would imagine that Emo has done their homework in this regard.There are many PC’s with 1-2kW SMPS’s these days for only ~$200-400 so it’s not unheard of… CPU’s and GPU’s have a high RMS load these days.Quad SLI is pushing the limits of a 15A 1800watt RMS breaker in most cases…