Cairn MEA500 Power Amplifier (Silver)
Excellent Condition
RRP: £1000 Our Price: £850
MEA 500 is a monoblock power amplifier designed to supply the maximum of dynamics and to control any kind of speaker. Build around a 500VA toroidal transformer, its electrical stability is perfect especially when the capacitors battery CAPA is connected.
MEA 500 can be wired in XLR and RCA, inputs are switched on the front panel (X & U). Per example you can connect your Hi-Fi system in XLR and your Home Theater system is RCA.
The design comes from the last generation of MEA : half size (215mm width) in a full aluminium frame. Three buttons control it : ON/OFF, Balanced or unbalanced input selection, A CLASSE or AB CLASSE more one IR remote control sensor (RC5) compatible with all Cairn universal remote control. ON/OFF can be triggered by positive continous signal (from 5 à 12VDC).
The musicality of MEA family depends on the polarization mode like the KO family. The AB mode give the priority to the dynamics and the lower frequencies, which are totally controlled. This mode is the best choice for home cinema, for hard to drive speakers or bi-amplification of lower frequences. The A mode is a must in terms of refinement, sweetness and sensuality . This mode is recommanded for High Fidelity listening, in multi-amplification of medium-high frequencies, particularly on electrostatic panels where stability in the upper frequencies is an issue.
MEA technically derivate from KO but the power supplies are optimized for the low impedance speakers like most if the speakers now..MEA 500 powers 250W RMS under 4 Ohms in standard and with the external CAPA box the trancient current is multiplied by more than 2 (two times more than KO2 too). CAPA is a enormous energy tank of 200 Joules can be considered as a battery which works instead of the main power supply. Transformer saturation is avoid and no-linéarity too, dynamics is at its best and the power supply follow the speed of the MOSFET transistors : the bass are strong without any pumping effect.
