Low-power multi-stage amplifiers are provided for capacitive reading of low-amplitude and low-frequency signals. An exemplary multi-stage amplifier comprises a plurality of amplification stages, wherein each of the amplification stages comprises an amplifying transistor and an active load, wherein substantially all of the amplification stages have one or more of an increasing DC bias level and a decreasing DC bias level relative to a prior stage, and wherein an output of a given one of the amplification stages is directly applied as an input to a subsequent one of the amplification stages.