Audio power amplifier inside the chassis of the main product. The audio amplifier was invented around 1912 by Lee De Forest, made possible by his invention of the first practical amplifying electrical component, the triode vacuum tube (or "valve" in British English) in 1907. 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 and some of these achieved notably high audio quality (e.g., the Williamson amplifier of
Triode 22.5V if an anode current of I = 2.25mA is chosen. If the input voltage amplitude (at the grid) changes from −1.5V to −0.5V (difference of 1V), the anode current will change from 1.2 to 3.3mA (see image). This will change the resistor voltage drop from 12 to 33V (a difference of 21V). Since the grid voltage changes from −1.5V to −0.5V, and the anode resistor voltage drops from 12 to 33 V, an amplification of the signal resulted. The amplification factor is 21: output voltage amplitude divided by input voltage amplitude. Triode A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum