Patent ID: 7729790

Claim:
A multi-channel audio amplifier system comprising: a plurality of audio amplifier channels, wherein each channel includes a sample rate converter configured to receive samples of an input audio data stream, store the samples in an input buffer, retrieve samples from the input buffer, and convert the samples to a re-sampled audio data stream, and a buffer management unit coupled to the input buffer and configured to maintain a write pointer indicating a position in the input buffer to which a next sample will be written and a read pointer indicating a position in the input buffer from which a next sample will be read, wherein the buffer management unit is configured to determine an actual difference between the values of the read and write pointers, wherein the buffer management unit is further configured to control a rate at which samples are read from the input buffer to achieve a target difference between the values of the read and write pointers; wherein for a first one of the channels, the target difference comprises a predetermined value; and wherein for the remainder of the channels, the target difference comprises the actual difference between the values of the read and write pointers of the first one of the channels.