Two new high-powered amplifiers manufactured by NEXO and powered by Yamaha made their debut at the AES show in New York. The NEXO NXAmp 4×4 and 4×1 (pictured) provide a cost-effective integration of command, control, protection and amplification of NEXO loudspeaker systems. Using Yamaha’s EEEngine technology, the amplifiers offer sonic purity of conventional Class-A/B, but with a heat dissipation equaling Class-D technology.
The UL-certified NXAmp models feature four amplifier channels that can be configured in 2×2 bridge mode, providing up to 4x 4,000W at 2 ohms per channel or 2x 8,000W at 4 ohms per channel on the NX 4×4; and 4x 1,300W per channel at 2 ohms or 2x 2,600W per channel at 4 ohms on the NX 4×1. The NX 4×4 is 4U high, contained in a 19-inch rack and weighs 49 pounds; the NX 4×1 is 3U high in a 19-inch rackspace weighing 33 pounds. The NXAmp power supplies are full resonance-type with half-bridge converters, and its unique design minimizes noise via ZCS (Zero Crossing Switch) technology. The NEXO NX 4×4 employs four times the structure of a mono amp to realize very high power with a low impedance load.
More than two years of research yielding significant DSP innovations enable multiple voltage, current and temperature sense lines from the NX amp output to protect both the amplifier and the power supply, including power-on/off protection, peak voltage and peak current limiters, VHF protection and more.
Front panel features include three amp-status LED indicators, LED display, encoder, user-control navigation buttons, volume and channel indicators, and mute and select buttons. NXAmp signal processing is identical on both models and is derived from the NX242 TD controller features. The NXAmps have more than three times the DSP capacity of an NX242 with an NXtension card installed. User-control navigation buttons comprise System Selection, which allows control across all NEXO ranges, System Setup, Protection, Delay, Input Patching, Output Gain, Volume Control, Save/Recall, Array EQ, Security Mode and Remote Control (via EtherSound protocol and ES Monitor Software (with optional EtherSound card installed).
There are three rear panel control ports: One is an expansion slot for adding an ES100 EtherSound board, another is a serial communication port for firmware updates and the third is a GPIO port for simple remote control and monitoring. Four NL4 output connectors are configurable to drive most of the NEXO products directly without needing an I/O panel. The firmware is updateable.
Delivery of the NEXO NXAmps is expected January 2008.
For additional information, visit www.yamahaca.com. For additional SR news, visit The Briefing Room or mixonline.com/live/products/.
