The Amplifier
The Amplifier used in the sirocco series has
always been that something that made the sirocco’s unique from other PC speakers
systems. VideoLogic is one of these rare companies that decided to manufacture
the amplifier as a separated unit from the speakers and the Subwoofer. That’s
the hi-fi way! The amplifier is built with aluminum and weights under 10 pounds.
The unit it self has that professional look similar to professional audio
equipment.
It has a total power output of 80 watts RMS at 1% THD where 10 watts RMS for
each satellite and 40 Watts RMS for the subwoofer. The amplifier can also
output 100 Watts RMS at 10% THD. The combined frequency response of the subwoofer
and satellites is 35 Hz to 20 kHz.
The Amplifier features a Self Peak Instantaneous
Temperature (°Ke) (SPiKe™) Protection Circuitry for protection against
overvoltage, undervoltage, overloads, including shorts to the supplies, thermal
runaway and instantaneous temperature peaks.
The transformer used is a dual rail Torodial
transformer with 28000µF of smoothing capacitance. 28000µF of capacity will
result in continually having a smoothed output so that if a sudden current
draw occurs, the capacitors will discharge to keep the current flow steady.
The front of the amplifier features all the controls
needed for sound adjusting. Everything is controlled via knobs, just like
in professional audio equipment. The knobs are large enough, and very comfortable
to turn. The front panel features a total of 4-nobs, first is the volume,
it of course increases or decreases the volume, the sub knob has a similar
function to the volume but will only act for the subwoofer; it increases or
decreases the bass output. The third knob is the fade; it balances the sound
between the front and rear speakers. And at last, the Source knob lets you
chose your audio source.
Source-1 is used with the 3D positional RCA inputs
(Front-Rear). If you will be using the crossfire setup on a Quadraphonic sound
card then that’s the choice that will have to be used. Source-2 is for connecting
full-sized units that use two RCA phono leads such as CD players, Mini Disc
Player or analog cassette players. Source-3 is used for connecting units that
use a 3.5mm stereo jack output, such as CD players or Mini Discs. The 3.5mm
Jack is situated on the front of the amplifier making it easier to connect
your external devices. The amplifier also features a headphone output jack.
When headphones are connected to the headphones jack the speakers will be
automatically muted.
Is that all? Not at all, the last option available
on the front is the Quad switch, for stereo sources (2 and 3); the quad switch
will duplicate the signal from the front speakers to the rear speakers, so
that you could hear stereo surround through two sets of speakers (front-rear).
Going to the back, there’s 2 sets of Gold plated
phono inputs for the surround source-1 (Front-Rear), followed by the RCA stereo
input source-2 (stereo surround). There’s also a Dolby Digital LFE channel
input (3.5mm jack) for those who will be planning on using VideoLogic’s Digitheater
decoder, and at last is the individual outputs to each speaker unit. A power
switch is also available; the amplifier doesn’t require to be turned off when
you are not around.
