This post is a part of the series on audio amplifier feedback. The contents of the series can be found here.
In the previous post, I looked at how Miller compensation reduces the global loop gain of an amplifier. Where does the gain go? It gets trapped inside the local loop that the compensation capacitor forms around the second (transimpedance) stage.
When several stages are included within one feedback loop, the individual gains of each stage multiply (left). However, when one of the stages is enclosed in a local loop, the contribution of that stage to the global loop gain changes - it becomes the Signal Transfer Function set by that local loop (right).
With Miller compensation, the magnitude of the second stage's Signal Transfer Function falls with frequency by 20dB/decade. Because of that, at low frequencies most of the raw open loop gain of the second stage is applied to the global feedback loop. As the frequency grows, the gain of the second stage is increasingly removed from the global loop and locked inside the local loop.
As discussed in the last post, the decreasing global loop gain affects distortion at high frequencies. The effect is quite dramatic - here is an illustration from Douglas Self's Desiging Audio Power Amplifiers book:
