Electrocompaniet EMC - Measured Performance

MEASURED PERFORMANCE

The Nemo can swing no less than 80V on short term peaks our measurements showed, making it vastly powerful. With a steady sine wave test it gave 75V, or 700 Watts into 8 Ohms. A current limiting protection circuit operates to limit power into low loads and although we got a few cycles through it at 1,400W in a burst test before the relay clattered in, it gives a steady 600 Watts or so. As most loudspeakers are effectively 4 Ohms it is then a 600 Watt amplifier able to give a little more on short term peaks. So the Nemo has vast headroom, but as such power is unusable on any sustained basis it is low level performance that counts.

Distortion was very low across the audio band our sweep shows, reaching just 0.012% into 4 Ohms at 1 Watt, 10kHz, rising to 0.05% maximum at high powers. Midband levels were much lower, down to 0.0015% at 1 Watt into 8 Ohms and 0.04% just below full power into 8 Ohms. So no matter how hard the Nemo was pushed it produced little distortion, and third harmonic dominated what was there.

Input is balanced via XLR and sensitivity unusually low at 2.8V for full output of 700 Watts, so the Nemo will need a high gain preamplifier, preferably with balanced outputs. Most preamps can swing 3V out, but x3 is a common gain figure and the Nemo needs x9 or more if it is to be matched to low output sources, like phono stages.

The Nemo is a hugely powerful amplifier that works substantially in Class A. It measures very well and should drive any load. NK

Power 700 Watts

Frequency response d.c. - 54kHz

Noise -122dB

Distortion 0.012%

Sensitivity 2.8V

Damping factor 58

DISTORTION SPECTRUM

DISTORTION SWEEP