II. Material Quality
10
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
The amplifier’s chassis is made from heavy-gauge steel with a half-inch machined
aluminum faceplate. All exterior metal parts are anodized or powder coated for
durability.
Printed circuit boards are fiberglass epoxy with gold plating over a tin/nickel barrier.
The gold layer will not corrode, while the barrier layer prevents the gold from migrating
to the lower copper layer.
All resistors are precision metal film; 1% tolerance for 1/4-watt and 5% tolerance for
1-watt.
Capacitors have been eliminated wherever possible. No electrolytic capacitors are
used except in the power supply, where several high-capacitance electrolytics
provide outstanding filtering of the supply output.
All semiconductor devices are of very high grade. Voltage gain is accomplished with
an extremely high-quality, matched dual FET, chosen for it’s exceptionally low noise
characteristics.
All audio input and output connector contacts are gold-plated, and XLR receptacles
are manufactured by Neutrik of Switzerland. Wire is used as little as possible in the
signal path - only to connect the RCA jacks and speaker terminals to the circuit board
- and what is used is 141-strand silver-plated copper with silicone insulation.