Owner`s manual

introduced by wiring harnesses, etc. more commonly found in high

performance amplifiers. High frequency power supply bypass is

accomplished on individual PC boards with capacitors of several film

types. The resulting uniformly low power supply impedance seen by

the various circuits within the amplifier lays the foundation for both the

massive power and the extraordinary finesse that characterizes the

Bravo power amplifier.

Balanced design

A truly balanced input topology eliminates the need for an input

buffer amplification stage and allows the first stage differential

amplifier to be driven directly by the source. Matched impedances are

presented to the source and both signals travel through identical

circuit paths. Painstaking attention to layout of the amplifier was

essential to minimize magnetic field distortions possible with such a

massive power delivery system, including careful mirror-imaging of

circuits to cancel magnetic fields. A balanced input signal remains

balanced throughout the voltage gain stages.

True Voltage Source

Your new amplifier operates as a virtually perfect textbook case of

"voltage sources." This is to say that they will maintain whatever the

appropriate voltage might be at any moment (given the demands of

the music, and within the rated voltage output of the amplifier),

without any particular regard for the current demands of the

loudspeaker. Because of this "voltage source" characteristic, the

amplifiers double their power output every time the loudspeaker

impedance is cut by half. For example, the Bravo power amplifier’s

continuous rated power is 350 watts per channel at 8 Ohms; 700 watts

per channel at 4 Ohms; 1400 watts per channel at 2 Ohms—assuming

the electrical circuit in the wall can support these extraordinary power

levels. A continuous 2 Ohm test of the BRAVO at maximum power

requires over 25 amperes at 120V. (The laws of physics refuse to be

cheated. Long-term, you cannot deliver more power into the speaker

than you can pull from the wall.) Forty TO-3P output transistors are

distributed in the heat sinks of the Bravo power amplifier to conduct

and control the flow of its remarkable power capabilities to the

loudspeaker. There are twenty matched, complementary pairs of

output transistors in each channel of the amplifier.

No known high quality loudspeaker can absorb the continuous full

power capability of the Bravo (nor would you want to be present in the