Pass Labs X5 Manual Do Utilizador

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X5 Owner’s Manual
Fortunately the amplifier is not sensitive to the capacitive/inductive 
character of  some of  the specialty speaker cables, so feel free to 
experiment.
We have found that about 90 per cent of  bad sounding cables are 
really bad connections, and we recommend that special attention be 
paid to cleanliness of  contact surfaces and tight fit.
Speaker cables should be firmly tightened down at the speaker 
output terminals, but do not use a wrench.  They will not withstand 
100 foot-lbs of  torque.  Hand tightening without excessive force is 
plenty.
The X5 has a power transformer, rated at 1000 watts, continuous 
duty.  Under actual conditions in the amplifier the transformer will 
deliver about 1800 watts for short duration. 
All the transistors in the product are power Mosfets, actually Hexfets 
from International Rectifier and Harris.  These are hyper-matched 
parts, with gate voltages matched to 0.5% and all devices taken 
from the same lot codes (made on the same wafer). The speed and 
noise critical gain devices in the front end, (that is to say the actual 
balanced pair of  transistors) are ultra low noise and distortion 
matched JFETs having a low (.02 S) transconductance figure. The 
JFETs are made on the same substrate for prefect matching. 
The X5 has 40 output Mosfet power transistors in TO-3 plastic 
packages, again matched to 0.5% and drawn from the same lot codes 
for each type.  The output stages can sustain transients of  about 
1,000 watts per channel, but are not allowed to dissipate more than 
half  that, even into a dead short.
So how long will this hardware last?  It is my experience that, barring 
abuse or the odd failure of  a component, the first things to go will 
be the power supply capacitors, and from experience, they will last 15 
to 20 years.  Fortunately they die gracefully and are easily replaced.  
After that, the longevity will depend on the number of  operating 
thermal cycles, but I can say that I have had amplifiers operating in 
the field in excess of  20 years with no particular mortality except 
capacitors.  The answer is, I don’t have good information beyond 
that.  More to the point, I would suggest that you not worry about 
it.  This is a conservatively built industrial design, not a tweaky tube 
circuit run on the brink.  If  it breaks, we will simply get it fixed, so 
sleep well.
Fun Hardware Facts