Linn 500 Solo manual How does the Klimax work?

3. How does the Klimax work?

In most power amplifiers the power supply comprises a large transformer, a rectifier and reservoir capacitors, often as large as the transformer. The highest performance amplifiers also have voltage regulators which maintain the power supplied to the amplifier circuitry constant, regardless of the input voltage or the output load. The bulk of these components dominates the size of the amplifier and the ‘tightness’ of the audio path, and if voltage regulators are present the power dissipation of the amplifier increases by up to 50%, requiring a bigger heat exchanger. This conventional type of power supply is simple, reliable, tolerant of overload and predictable. On the down side it is very bulky, heavy, slow to respond, inefficient, causes high mains power distortion, can cause electrical and acoustic noise and requires a relatively long and exposed audio path.

In the Klimax we use a technology we have been developing and using in our low power products for several years, called ‘switch mode’. This concept is not new; it has been used in computers since the 1960’s, however applying it to audio has always been considered, at best, inappropriate. The potential benefits of switch mode power supply technology are compactness, high efficiency, fast response, good mains input tolerance, good load tolerance, low acoustic noise and with its low material use, environmental friendliness. The potential downsides are electrical noise, high complexity and potentially lower reliability, complex certification requirements, design difficulty and high engineering cost. These have kept switch mode out of most audio equipment.

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