The T 975 7-channel and T 955 5-channel power amplifiers employ monoblock construction and the proprietary PowerDrive topology
CEDIA EXPO 2006, DENVER, CO., Sept. 14, 2006 — NAD unveiled two new power amplifiers, the T 975 Seven Channel Amplifier and the T 955 Five Channel Amplifier during CEDIA 2006 this week in Denver.
Separate components have always been the audio enthusiasts preference and occupy the highest tier of performance for consumer electronics products. Embracing this philosophy NAD will premier two new amplifiers, the T975 and the T955, both of which employ monoblock construction and incorporate NAD’s proprietary PowerDrive™ circuitry. These two new power amplifiers provide customers and professional installers two choices for top-tier home theater systems. The T 975 provides 140wpc of continuous power with all seven (7) channels driven simultaneously. The T 955 delivers a tremendously powerful 100wpc of continuous power with all five (5) channels driven simultaneously and is the perfect alternative when seven speakers are either not desired or modest space limitations precludes this option.
The T975 and the T955 benefit from NAD’s proprietary PowerDrive topology, delivering maximum performance under virtually any circumstance, independent of the loudspeakers. The PowerDrive circuit automatically senses a loudspeaker’s impedance characteristics and adjusts its power supply settings to best cope with that specific load. This ensures remarkably dynamic and distortion-free performance, even from demanding 4-ohm designs. The result is an amplifier with high dynamic power and low impedance drive capability.
Moreover. NAD has always been very conservative when quoting output power ratings, choosing the far stricter and more conservative Full Disclosure Power rating, with all channels driven simultaneously, at full bandwidth of 20Hz to 20kHz, at rated distortion (0.08% THD) at 8 and 4 ohms.
The T975 uses a unique variable speed fan cooling system that was first introduced on the M25 Masters Series amplifier. This allows the T975 to deliver massive amounts of power for hours on end. Many amps thermally protect and cycle the internal fan on and off. While a well-designed forced air system can eliminate thermal cycling, it is also crucial to keep the noise of the cooling fan from being heard – especially during quiet passages of the movie or music. To this end, NAD has developed a unique circuit that measures not only the temperature of the heat sinks, but also the level of the input signal to ensure that the fan is silent during quiet passages.
Each element of the individual channel circuitry in the T975 and the T955, save the power supply, is fully independent, eliminating inter-channel influences. Active ground isolation further eliminates any possibility of inter-channel interference. The power supply used in both amplifiers was carefully designed using NAD’s exclusive “Holmgren” transformer with a special core and materials to enhance efficiency, making the transformer less sensitive to DC offsets on the AC mains voltage. Each channel has individual over current, DC, infrasonic and ultrasonic overload sensing and protection for complete reliability under even the most severe operating conditions.
NAD’s proven all discrete circuit topology offers very low distortion combined with extremely high current capability. Active current sources and common base current followers in the power amp section combine to improve supply rejection to unprecedented levels, well beyond the audible frequency range. This reduces dynamic intermodulation distortion between music signal components at different frequency ranges. In measurement terms static and dynamic IM distortion are reduced by between 10dB to 20dB. (to between -90dB and – 100dB.) compared to conventional designs.
In audible terms this improves definition, purity and resolution resulting in extraordinary imaging. Imaging, a very important element for surround sound listening, transforms your listening room into the sound stage of the musical or cinematic performance!
Individual gain adjustments for each channel is found on the rear panel of both amplifiers and promotes easy, accurate system configuration, as does the integral 12V trigger turn-on response. Ruggedness and in-system reliability are critical to successful custom-installed systems so both the T975 and the T955 utilize a combination of fuse and electronic non-intrusive protection, which is dependable, fail-safe, and sonically transparent.
Custom designed heat sinks keep things cool under the most severe operating conditions without the requirement of forced air-cooling and its potential noise.
This allows all channels to be fully protected against excess temperature, DC fault, and loudspeaker short-circuits. Each channel is supplied with custom 5-way speaker binding posts and a gold-plated RCA jack for incoming audio signals.
The T975 Five-Channel Amplifier and the T955 Five-Channel Amplifier will ship in 4th Qtr. ’06 and sell for US MSRP of $2199 and $1299, respectively. They can both be seen with the rest of NAD’s products in Booth #122 at the Colorado Convention Center during CEDIA Expo ’06.
