Интегральные усилители — Accustic Arts POWER II

The POWER II is an integrated stereo amplifier from Accustic Arts, the high-end electronics maker based in Lauffen in southern Germany, built by hand in a full metal housing that shields the circuits, with a brushed aluminium front panel and chromed brass controls. It combines a line preamplifier, a solid-state power stage and a switchable headphone amplifier in one chassis. North American list price was USD 9,990, with a gold trim version at USD 10,990.

Key specs that matter

Rated power reaches 180 W per channel into 8 ohm, 235 W into 4 ohm and 315 W into 2 ohm, all measured at 1 percent THD+N. Distortion in normal use stays below 0.015 percent, noise sits 97 dB below reference with A-weighting, and damping exceeds 710. Rise and fall time is 4.6 microseconds into a 4 ohm load, and the listed frequency range runs from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Connections include two balanced XLR inputs, three unbalanced RCA inputs, one further RCA socket that can be configured as a surround bypass input, an RCA pre-out and a 6.3 mm headphone jack for loads above 25 ohm. The chassis measures 145 x 482 x 440 mm and weighs about 23 kg, and consumption with no signal is around 61 W.

Engineering and use context

Twelve selected bipolar transistors make up the output section. Power comes from an encapsulated 550 VA toroidal transformer with separate windings for the preamplifier and power amplifier sections, so the two stages do not share a supply winding, and more than 80,000 microfarads of capacitance smooth the rails. A protection circuit watches for clipping, high frequency oscillation, excess temperature and DC offset. Level is adjusted by a microprocessor-controlled volume stage, and the package includes the RC II remote handset from Accustic Arts. Accustic Arts links the high damping factor to the output reserves of the design, and the headphone amplifier can be switched off when only loudspeakers are in use.

Pairing

The low-impedance rating suits low impedance floorstanders and loudspeakers whose load dips well below nominal, and the gold-plated terminals accept heavy speaker cable. Balanced sources such as a CD player or DAC with XLR outputs can use the two XLR inputs, while the RCA pre-out lets the owner add bass modules with their own amplification or bridge to extra power amps later. The input list contains no phono socket, so vinyl playback requires a separate MM or MC stage feeding one of the RCA inputs.

Alternatives

The Accustic Arts POWER III is another integrated amplifier in the catalogue of the same German maker.