BLOCK AUDIO Mono, Power a Line

The MONO BLOCK is - spoiler coming - a mono block capable of delivering 1x500W (1x250W into 8 ohms). The first 200 watts are pure class A operation, the rest switches to AB. Aesthetically it is an amp of prey with a modern clean cut facade that brings to my mind another monster - the M.U.T.O. from the latest Edward's Godzilla movie (did you know the abbreviations stand for winged Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism?). Alike this organism the MONO BLOCK is somewhat energy hungry - it draws 500W of juice at idle. There is a possibility to switch it to the ECO mode, however, yet it remains to draw 100 watts. If you do not cover the energy consumption by your own powerplant in the backyard then it is recommended to switch the unit off to STAND BY (0.5W). 

The rest of parameters made me hungry: 90 kilos of net weight, powerful low-noise and low-radiation 2.1kVA toroid transformer, 500,000 µFof power supply-filter capacitance at each channel, more than 120dB of signal to noise ratio and brutal damping factor of 5000 (by the way, it is twenty times more than that of the Musical Fidelity Titan). All these numbers mean control - the pair of the MONO BLOCKs can easily drive any speakers on the planet.

The use of MONO BLOCks is conditioned by the use of the LINE and POWER blocks at the same time. There is no freedom in combination of the power amp with other preamps or vice versa - all Block devices are interconnected including the protecting circuits communication. Do not even dare to think about acquiring just one BLOCK and match it with your existing gear. For example, the LINE BLOCK preamplifier switches the MONO BLOCKs on and off and controls their internal temperature through a communication link. The MONO BLOCKs sense the load at their speaker terminals - if the speakers are not connected then the power amps would not power up.

The LINE BLOCK is of a strictly dual mono design - in fact the preamp consists of two separate chassis (one channel each) that are held together by a joint display unit at the front and a headphone preamplifier (class A again) at the back. The headphones may be connected through XLR or 6.3mm jack. A phono preamp is on request. The LINE BLOCK's connectivity provides 4 pairs of balanced XLR inputs and 5 pairs single ended RCA inputs. There are 2 pairs of XLR and RCA outputs too.

To feed the electricity to the amplifiers the POWER BLOCK is needed. The power supply is based on battery cells - each channel has its own pack. The capacity of the batteries allows for approximately 15-20 hours of operation. Once running low the power supply switches automatically to a recharge mode. The trick is that even during the recharging, when the listener can listen to the music normally, the POWER BLOCK isolates the amplifiers from mains and works like an energy buffer reservoir. So, the power filtration is made redundant with the BLOCKs. There is a software option to reprogram the devices to draw the juice directly from the mains, although the vulnerability to external noise increases.