Patent ID: 7492217

Claim:
A digital audio system, comprising: a plurality of power stage devices, each having an input for receiving pulse-width-modulated signals, and having an output for driving a speaker responsive to the pulse-width-modulated signals; and an audio processor, comprising: circuitry for generating a start sequence of pulse-width-modulated signals for the associated power stage device at a transition from a muted state, and for generating a stop sequence of pulse-width-modulated signals for the associated power stage device at a transition from a muted state; and a plurality of audio amplifier channels, each associated with a power stage device and comprising: PWM circuitry for generating pulse-width-modulated signals for the associated power stage device, responsive to a digital audio input signal; interchannel delay circuitry, for receiving an interchannel delay value, and coupled to the PWM circuitry for applying a delay to edges of the pulse-width-modulated signals responsive to the interchannel delay value; and delay adjust circuitry, for increasing the delay of the edges of the pulse-width-modulated signals following the start sequence to increase over a plurality of edges from zero interchannel delay to a full interchannel delay corresponding to the interchannel delay value, and for decreasing the delay of the edges of the pulse-width-modulated signals following the stop sequence to decrease over a plurality of edges from the full interchannel delay to zero interchannel delay.