About Airpulse A80 Active Speakers
The A80 continues to use Airpulse's unique horn-loaded aluminium ribbon tweeter and a proprietarily-designed 4.5inch aluminium cone mid-woofer driver. They are housed in an 18-mm thick high-strength MDF cabinet with beautiful finishes.
The well-known American Transparent cable is used in the A80 for internal connection to ensure minimum signal loss. The active speaker has a high efficiency Class D amplifier with digital signal processing (XMOS) system, powered by an efficient power supply.
The system in the A80 supports multiple inputs, including Bluetooth, Aux, PC, USB and Optical. Frequency response ranges from 52Hz to 40kHz. It supports Hi-Res high-quality audio playback and has obtained a Hi-Res official certification.
Horn Loaded Ribbon Tweeter: The A80 horn loaded ribbon tweeter is the same as the A100. The thin aluminium ribbon diaphragm has high sensitivity, superb transient response, extended frequency range and well-defined resolution. The meticulously formulated horn shape produces directional and optimized high frequencies from the ribbon tweeter, so they are aimed at the listeners, minimizing unwanted effect from room reflection. This also leads to superior imaging which results in full and three dimensional sound with each detail well defined.
4.5" Aluminium Cone Low Distortion Mid/Woofer: The mid-woofer is a 4.5" (114mm) unit with a hard anodized aluminium alloy cone suspended in a heavy, ultra rigid cast magnesium alloy frame. The proprietary aluminium alloy cone was designed through a meticulous process analysing different types of cone geometry and materials using a Klippel Laser Doppler Interferometer. The 30mm diameter voice coil is larger than most loudspeakers of this size. It has been shown that larger voice coils have less power compression because they run at a cooler operating temperature. Sonically this means a more realistic dynamic representation of the music as it's dynamics in music that give it emotion and exhilaration. The cooler running temperature of the voice coil also has the side benefit of a more reliable loudspeaker since cooler voice coil means much less chance of speaker failure.
Ultra-Low Distortion Signal Processing & Amplification System: The entire digital system is built on an XMOS XU216 multi-core signal processor, a powerful 16-core audio processor based on XMOS xCore200 architecture, which has up to 2000 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) processing power.
Fully Digital Amplifier: The power amplifier is built around two TAS5754 Class-D amplifiers from Texas Instruments. This component is one of a handful of Class-D amplifiers on the market which combines high input sample rate support and high output PWM carrier frequency. These two characteristics are essential to achieve low background noise and low distortion. The up-to 192kHz input sample rate support guarantees the entire link for digital processing runs without any change in sample rate signal. Its 768kHz output PWM carrier frequency, double the typical 384kHz found in traditional Class-D amplifiers, is more suited to driving the highly sensitive ribbon tweeter. One TAS5754 is connected in bridge mode to the left and right channel woofer while the other amp is connected in bridge mode to the left and right channel ribbon tweeters.
Signal Processing: The analogue front end uses top-of-the-line components from Texas Instruments. With special configuration, the chipset works at 96kHz to offer a frequency response up to 40kHz. The SPDIF receiver PCM9211 is also from Texas Instruments and supports input sample rate up to 216kHz. With very low output jitter, the unpacked audio signal can be delivered to the XMOS processor with zero loss.
Bluetooth 5.0 aptX: The Bluetooth audio receiver is built on Qualcomm's Bluetooth V5.0 chipset, which supports aptX and offers far better audio playback quality than a traditional Bluetooth SBC codec.
Our Take On The Airpulse A80 Active Speakers
The Airpulse A80 takes the key ingredients of the A100 and distils them down into a smaller, but no less capable, package. Flexibility is key with the Airpulse A80 Active Speakers. They can play back hi-res audio through the optical and USB digital inputs as well as handle legacy components such as a CD player or iPod through the two analogue RCA inputs. You can add a powered subwoofer for some low end oomph and adjust the tone via bass and treble controls on the back panel. A handy remote control lets you turn the A80 on, select inputs, turn the volume up and down and mute the system, all from the comfort of your chair. The latest Bluetooth 5.0 lets you stream all the music you want from your smart device and the A80 sounds much bigger than its size while doing it. Convenience, good sound, stylish design and three gloss finishes. The Airpulse A80 Active Speakers offer a lot of performance for the money.
Main Features & Specifications
- Design: Compact Remote Control Powered Speakers with Analogue & Digital connections
- Tweeter: Horn Loaded Ribbon Tweeter
- Mid-Woofer: 4.5 inch (114mm) Aluminium Cone Mid-Woofer
- Amplifier System: Digital Amplifier with XMOS Processor
- Power Output: Tweeter L/R: 10W + 10W, Mid-Woofer L/R: 40W + 40W
- Frequency Response: 52Hz - 40KHz
- Signal-Noise Ratio: ≥90dB(A)
- Connections
- Left/Right Speaker link connections
- Subwoofer out
- Aux Stereo Analogue RCA input
- PC Stereo Analogue RCA input
- USB-B Digital input (supports up to 192 kHz sample rate)
- Optical Digital input (supports up to 192 kHz sample rate)
- Bluetooth
- Figure of 8 Power Socket
- Rear Panel Controls: On/Off, Volume, Bass, Treble
- Remote Controls: On/Off, Input Selection, Volume Up/Down, Mute
- Input Sensitivity
- AUX: 450 ± 50mV
- PC: 550 ± 50mV
- USB: 400 ± 50mFFs
- Optical: 400 ± 50mFFs
- Bluetooth: 500 ± 50mFFs
- Sub Out: 1,200mV Max (changes as the master volume changes)
- Hyper-Rigid Cast-Magnesium Alloy Frame Woofer
- Internal Wiring by Transparent Cable
- 18-mm thick high strength MDF cabinets
- Qualcomm's Bluetooth V5.0 chipset CSR8645
- 2 x 384kHz Class-D amplifiers
- Included Accessories: Remote control, 3.5mm to 2 RCA analogue audio cable, 2 RCA to 2 RCA analogue audio cable, Speaker connecting cable, USB digital audio cable, Optical digital audio cable, Power cable, User manual, Foam Wedge Desktop Stands
- Available Finishes: Walnut, Pine & Blue
- Cabinet Size (WxHxD): 140 x 250 x 220mm each
- Weight: 9.3kg
- Manufacturer's Warranty: 3 Years
Note: Features & Specifications Subject To Change Without Notice. E&OE.