6
The Macro-T
ech Design Philosophy
T
he Macr
o-T
ech pr
oduct line, and its pr
ecursor
Micr
o-T
ech
®
, awed the audio industr
y with new
technologies that r
educed distor
tion and ther
mal
str
ess — while incr
easing r
eliability
, audio quality
, power density
and power output.
Thr
ee patented technologies invented by Cr
own’
s Gerald Stanley
led to those benefi
ts:
•
Gr
ounded
Bridge
™
topology pr
ovided 4 times the power of
existing power transistors without sacrifi
cing r
eliability
.
•
Junction T
emperatur
e Simulation (JTS), otherwise known
as Output Device Emulator Pr
otection (ODEP
®
), pr
otected
the power transistors fr
om overheating and maximized their
potential power output by keeping them at the optimum
temperatur
e.
•
V
ariable Impedance or VZ
®
power supply
, also called bi-level
power
-supply switching, was used in the MA-3600VZ and MA-
5000VZ Series. The supply changes its impedance to adapt to
the signal voltage and curr
ent. This technology per
mits large
amounts of power in a compact package while achieving ultra-
low distor
tion and without generating excess heat.
Ho
w It All Began...
The brainstor
ming for this whole family began with
collaboration between engineers Gerald Stanley and Jim
W
o
rd
inger
. In considering the drawbacks of curr
ent power
amplifi
ers, they wer
e looking for ways to:
•
pack mor
e power into a smaller rack space
•
impr
ove r
eliability by pr
eventing overheating
•
lower the cost per watt.
Gerald’
s Gr
ounded-Bridge design and Junction T
emperatur
e
Simulation wer
e alr
eady in his toolkit. In 1975, JTS was
employed in the SA-2 and PSA-2 amplifi
ers, while Gr
ounded
Bridge was used in the M-600.
Gerald and Jim thought, “How about taking our two best
technologies and putting them in the same pr
oduct?” The
Micr
o-T
ech Series was bor
n. The original name of this series
was to be HV
A for High V
alue Amplifi
er
.
Ho
w about
taking our
tw
o best
technologies
and putting
them in the
same product?”
