XA160.5 Owner’s Manual
the temperature exceeds 75 degrees Centigrade. This thermal cutout should never occur in real life. This is a very rare occurrence, and would indicate a serious problem.
Interconnects and Speaker Cables
We have a general recommendation about interconnects, and speaker cables: They should cost less than the amplifier, and contain at least some conductive material. We have tried a lot of products and most work well, but as a practical matter we cannot make blanket recommendations.
The amplifier is not sensitive to source interconnects. It is also not sensitive to radio frequency pickup, which allows some flexibility in choosing source interconnects without shields, though shields are usually a very good idea. For long runs balanced cables are highly recommended for their inherent rejection of noise.
We prefer speaker cables that are short and stout.
Fortunately this amplifier is not sensitive to the capacitive/inductive character of some of the specialty speaker cables, so feel free to experiment.
We have found that about 90 per cent of bad sounding cables are really bad sounding connections, and we recommend that attention be paid to cleanliness of electrical contact surfaces and proper connector fit.
Speaker cables should be firmly tightened down at the speaker output terminals, but not with a wrench. Output terminals will not withstand the levels of torque that may be easily applied by wrench. Hand tightening without excessive force is plenty. Cleaning contact surfaces with one of the commercially available electronic contact cleaners should be part of your annual system maintenance.
Product Life
So how long will this hardware last? It is our experience that, barring abuse or the odd failure of a component, the first things to go will be the power supply capacitors, and from experience, they will last 15 to 30 years. Fortunately they die gracefully and are easily replaced by a good technician.
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