The latest member of Classe Audio’s acclaimed Delta family of audio and audio-video components is a five-channel power amplifier, the CA-5100. With five high-performance channels of 100 watts each (minimum; all channels driven simultaneously), the newest Classe amplifier brings the advantages of the Canadian maker’s internationally respected Delta-range–unexcelled performance, superb, audiophile-grade sonics, and unmatched quality of components and manufacture–to a broader range of high-end home-theater system designers and enthusiasts.
With a conservatively rated 100 watts per channel and substantial low-impedance drive capability, the CA-5100 is ideally suited as a main amplifier for home-theater installations where the higher power of its 5×200-watt sibling the CA-5200, or of multiple amplifier components is not required. Nonetheless, the new model retains the massive power-supply design and enormous current reserves of its Delta-range predecessors, featuring an entirely separate supply for control and AC-monitoring systems, and three current-rich, fully discrete audio supplies devoted to front/rear-left, front/rear-right, and center channels, an arrangement Classe has determined to optimize dynamic potential and sonic integrity. Like all the Delta-series power amps, the CA-5100 design performs effortlessly regardless of the demands placed upon it, including the most taxing combinations of difficult loudspeaker loads and challenging source material.
The CA-5100 incorporates both balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA) inputs for each of its five channels, and these are selectable from the front panel, or via the amplifier’s bi-directional RS-232 control, permitting, for example, “smart” connection of both a purist preamplifier and sophisticated surround processor simultaneously.
Infrared-control, CAN BUS, and DC-trigger control connections are also on tap, making the newest Classe among the most configurable and easily integrated power amplifiers available.
Like its Delta siblings, the CA-5100 is crafted entirely at Classe’s Quebec facilities, employing best-available componentry and materials throughout, and finished to the exquisite standards that have established the firm’s unassailable quality reputation worldwide. The Classe Delta series CA-5100 power amplifier will be available in September, 2005 at a manufacturer’s suggested price of $5,000 (US).
