Powersoft used last week’s Prolight +Sound to announce the X Series power amplifier. The company told of its intentions to change the landscape of the professional amplifier market with the new series, which is said to offer versatility, flexibility and power without compromising on size, efficiency and audio quality.
A key feature of the X Series is that it integrates a large amount of functionality, generally only found in separate outboard units. This includes an innovative system of channel routing, a universal mono, bi and three-phase balancing power supply, and a fully-featured DSP.
The X Series consists of two models. The X8 is the largest amplifier in the range, boasting eight channels in a 2U chassis, while the X4 features four channels in a single rack unit. Both models share the same power density, being capable of delivering up to 5,200W @ 2 ohms per channel.
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The family natively supports AES3, two redundant Dante digital streams and analogue inputs, providing up to four different selectable input sources per channel.
Suitable for both low and high impedance applications, the X8 and X4 are equally suitable for concert touring and professional fixed installations. The modular construction permits the rear input/output connections to feature either XLR/speakON or Phoenix connectors, depending on the requirement of the specific application.
“The philosophy behind the X Series is to permit the audio system to operate independently from the power mains available at the venue and to allow even smaller racks to be brought to run the show,” explains Luca Giorgi, pro audio business unit director at Powersoft. “This brings us even closer to complete integration of the system and provides an unmatched level of control over the behaviour of both the audio and power source.”
The truly universal power supply has worldwide AC acceptance and allows direct connection to any regional power line configuration.
“Our sights have been fixed firmly on the future during the design of the X Series,” states Claudio Lastrucci, Powersoft R&D director, “We looked at what we believe amplifiers will require for the next 10 years and made a platform capable of meeting these needs as well as building in a certain level of ‘future proof’ expandability.”
Managing power with Powersoft X4 and X8 is said to be simple thanks to the integrated low latency DSP providing quality in signal processing as well as a complete routing and mixing of the input/output channels. Signal management and processing architecture on the Powersoft X Series is composed of six separate sections: input source selection; input processing; matrix; pre-output processing; speaker routing; and output processing.
