Montreal – Classe will go to the CEDIA Expo to replace four
of its five high-end Delta series amplifiers, whose enhancements include an
active heat-sink system to maintain ideal operating temperature throughout a
listening session for best sonic performance.
All four ship in September, marking the brand’s largest new
product launch since 2004. The amps are the $5,500 300-watt-mono CA-M300,
$7,000 600-watt mono CA-M600, $7,000 2×300-watt CA-2300, and $9,500 5×300-watt
CA-5300. They’ll join the carryover 2×100-watt CA-2100, which now carries a
promotional price of $2,750, down from the regular $4,000.
The active-cooling system, called ICTunnel, uses
microprocessor controls and sensors to maintain the amplifiers’ ideal operating
temperature, no matter how hard the amp is driven, throughout a listening
session, the company said. Amps deliver their best sonic performance when
warmed to their ideal operating temperature, the company explained. Because few
listeners know what their amp’s ideal operating temperature is and how long it
takes to achieve it, ICTunnel brings the new amps to their ideal temperature
within 15 minutes of initial power-on and holds that temperature, the company
noted.
With all amplifiers that use passive heatsinks, said brand
development executive VP Dave Nauber, the time it takes to reach an ideal
operating temperature “depends on how loud they are playing, how difficult the
speaker load, the ambient air temp and whether they are out in the open or not.
It also depends on the heatsink designs, which are usually thick pieces of
metal that take a long time to heat up.” However long it takes, however, “there
is no way to stop them from running right through the ideal temperature.”
For example, he said,
Classe tested its new CT-M600 and an older 2×100 CA-200 driving a four ohm load
at 1/8 power. The CT-M600 (at 155W) was at its ideal temperature in about 11
minutes and stayed there throughout the test, he said. At only 50 watts,
however, the CA-200took about 23 minutes to reach the same temp stayed there only
for about a minute and continued to get hotter over the 71 minute test, he
explained.
Two other key enhancements in the new Delta amps include a
miniaturized driver-stage circuit, said to be almost perfectly free of noise
and distortion, and the use of a single six-layer circuit board for
amplification to significantly shorten the audio-signal path. The result is
said to be superior time-domain performance and greater transparency.
A new power supply
design enables the amplifiers to consume only 0.5 watts in standby mode.
All four new models
retail their predecessors’ large, rounded face and aluminum-steel construction.
Also carried over are RS-232, CAN Bus, and IR ports and DC triggers, but the
new models add USB.
