TEAC Announces AP-507 Stereo Power Amplifier – First Look
All Image Credit: TEAC
TEAC has announced the expansion of their Reference 500 range with the addition of the AP-507 Stereo Power Amplifier. This small footprint, high performance power amplifier supports stereo, bi-amp and bridge modes, being capable of delivering up to 230watts rms into 8 ohms in bridge mode. It is available in either a silver or black chassis.
The fan-less AP-507 features a solid steel frame that uses front, top, and side panels of highly rigid 2.8mm thick aluminum. The chassis sitting upon TEAC’s proprietary three-point Stress-Less Isolation feet, all helping to improve isolation, reduce vibration of internal components and ensure a silent listening experience. The front panel contains dual VU meters that support four adjustable brightness levels (bright, medium, dark, and off), and that may also be be turned off or have their sensitivity increased by +20dB for lower level dynamic metering.
At the core of this latest design is a Class D new-generation Hypex NCOREx power amplifier module that has been custom-tuned by TEAC’s engineers to their specifications and high performance standards.
NCOREx Power Module
The stereo power amplifier features a fully balanced circuit and employs TEAC’s proprietary ‘dual-mono buffer amplifier’ that creates low distortion, high efficiency, low noise and ultra-linear performance from the amplifier. Both the RCA and XLR input circuits feature the premium Muses 8820E operational amplifier, while the XLR input section is designed without coupling capacitors, eliminating transmission loss and helping to preserve musical detail.
Powering the AP-507 front-end buffers is a robust power section that uses a large toroidal core transformer. Its dual-mono power rectifier design, with independent left and right channels, ensures optimal channel separation and eliminates inter-channel crosstalk. Each channel is equipped with 18,800 μF of capacitance, while Schottky barrier diodes are incorporated to suppress rectification noise, providing a cleaner, more stable power supply for enhanced performance across all front end sections.
The power amplifier is flexible supporting stereo, bi-amp and BTL (Bridge Tied Load) mono modes, delivering a claimed power output of 70 watts per channel at 8 ohms (1% THD), and 230 watts at 8 ohms in BTL mono mode.
Rear panel connectivity supports; selectable analog stereo balanced XLR or unbalanced RCA inputs, and two pairs of gold plated speaker binding posts, plus a 3.5mm 12VDC trigger I/O. The output mode switching is also located on the rear panel.
