Classe Audio CA-5100 Benutzerhandbuch

9

All Classé analog amplifi cation stages are based on circuits that have been 
extensively optimized over many years of continuous development. 

By starting with excellent circuit designs and working with them over the years, 
we are able to discover the many small refi nements that add up to superlative 
performance, in a variety of applications. Altering a voltage here, or using a 
slightly diff erent part there, may make all the diff erence between solid and 
absolutely outstanding performance. 

Th

  is level of refi nement only comes with a great deal of experience, and is not 

available to those who fl it from one trendy notion to the next. It accounts 
in no small measure for both the consistency of sonic performance among 
Classé products (as they are all based on similar analog gain stages), and for the 
consistently excellent reviews those products receive by owners and reviewers 
alike.

extensive listening tests Excellent measured performance is to be expected in world-class products, and 

Classé products deliver that performance. However, experience has shown that 
technical excellence alone is insuffi

  cient to guarantee subjectively musical results.

For this reason, all Classé products are laboriously fi ne-tuned during the 
development process by carefully controlled listening tests. Our ears are still 
some of the fi nest laboratory test instruments available, and nicely complement 
more traditional engineering test equipment. In the course of optimizing the 
circuitry for a product, hundreds of decisions are made based on the subjective 
impression given by substituting one high quality part for another. 

As an example, we may listen to half a dozen 0.1% fi lm resistors of the same 
value, from several diff erent companies. Standard tests may show them all to 
provide identical results in terms of noise, distortion, and so forth. Yet, almost 
invariably, one selection yields some small improvement in the subjective 
reaction to the performance of the product under development. Less often, even 
a single such change can result in a surprisingly large improvement.

Multiply those various improvements by the dozens or even hundreds of such 
decisions that must be made before the product can be fi nalized for production, 
and you have a remarkable improvement, indeed—all based on careful listening 
tests, which we view as a necessary complement to the solid engineering you 
might rightly expect from Classé.