Pass Labs XA60.5 ユーザーズマニュアル

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XA60.5 Owner’s Manual
Nelson Pass has been designing audio electronics since about 1971, 
first with ESS (remember Heil transformers?), and then forming a 
new company, Threshold in 1975.  Threshold pioneered the design 
of  high power Class A power amplifiers and later, high power 
amplifiers using only local feedback (the Stasis series).
Pass sold Threshold and created Pass Laboratories in 1991, where he 
concentrated first on elevating single-ended Class A power amplifiers 
to new power levels and performance, the Aleph series.
Along the way he found the time to design successful lines of  
amplifiers for such companies as Adcom and Nakamichi, and has 
contributed approximately 60 designs (so far) to the public “Do-It-
Yourself ” hobbyist community.
Over the years, Nelson Pass has made power, simplicity, and 
performance his design signature.  The hardware tends to run heavy 
and hot, but elicits high performance and reliability from simple 
circuits with little or no negative feedback..
In 1998 Pass Labs released the X series of  audio power amplifiers, 
based on the “SuperSymmetric” topology (U.S. Patent #5,376,899) 
which elicits high power and performance from simple circuits with 
minimal feedback.
The first X amplifier, the X1000 was intended as the premier 
example of  the power of  this principle, delivering 1000 watts rms 
into 8 ohms at low distortion.  By itself  of  course, this is no miracle, 
but you have to consider that products with comparable performance 
have complicated circuits with as many as nine consecutive gain 
stages and lots and lots of  negative feedback.  The X1000 had only 
two stages and used only local feedback.  
The difference was the unique balanced circuit topology in which 
circuit errors are replicated at both output terminals so as to cancel 
and disappear across the loudspeaker terminals.  The high quality of  
the sound reflects both the low distortion and simplicity of  the gain 
path.
The SuperSymmetric circuit consists of  two identical matched 
circuits arranged like the wings of  a butterfly, showing symmetry 
from left to right, and operating balanced to the loudspeaker.  The 
amplified signal appears with opposing phase across the loudspeaker.  
Most of  the distortion and noise appears in phase across the 
loudspeaker, and is not seen.