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NAD CI9120 Power Amplifier

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The NAD CI9120 is a clean-sheet design 12 channel amplifier specifically engineered to meet the demanding requirements of the advanced custom installation market. The result of this intensive design effort is an amplifier that sets new standards for "bullet-proof" reliability and sonic performance in this specialized category.

Power:

Many of the amplifiers designed for multi-zone distributed audio are just not powerful enough. The CI9120 at 75 Watts Continuous power per channel, boasts nearly double the power of most other competing amplifiers. This is very critical, because unlike a normal hi-fi amplifier that only has to send its signal to speakers across the room, custom installations often demand that the signal be sent from one end of the home to the other. The series resistance of long runs of speaker wire combined with impedance-matched volume controls can create special demands on an amplifier that the CI9120 has been designed to overcome.

OMC:

NAD's proprietary Output Management Circuit (OMC) ensures that the full power is available at any reasonable load impedance. If the load impedance falls below 3 ohms, indicating something other than a loudspeaker is connected to the amplifier channel, the OMC will limit the power flow and prevent the amplifier from overdriving or overheating. This not only protects the amplifier, but it also prevents loads attached to the amplifier from heating up excessively, an important factor when the liability of an installed system is a consideration. When the OMC detects a potential fault situation and begins to limit current flow, an amber colored LED illuminates on the front panel to alert the installer to a problem in the system. When the OMC is activated, the amplifier will continue to play without distortion, but the power level will be reduced to the amplifier channel that has the problem.

Reliability:

Every design decision, both electronic and mechanical, was made with absolute reliability as the primary goal. An auto-resetting protection circuit is also part of the CI9120's design. The fast acting protection circuit jumps into action if the amplifier overheats or encounters a dead short circuit condition. A red front panel LED indicates that the protection circuit has been activated. When the condition is normalized the amplifier resets to Standby condition. In the unlikely event of amplifier failure, the CI9120 is designed to be easily field serviceable with all amplifying circuitry mounted on plug-in modules.

Low-pressure cooling:

With the CI9120's highly efficient low-pressure cooling system, it is very unlikely that the protection system will ever encounter an overheating situation. High-volume, low-pressure, fans keep both the power supply and the output stage cool, yet are essentially quiet in operation. Thermostatically controlled, the fans automatically adjust to the ambient temperature to insure the optimum operating conditions for the amplifier at all times.

Flexibility:

The ideal Custom Installation amplifier not only has to have absolute reliability and great sound quality, but it also must be flexible enough to interface correctly with a variety of other devices, and often diverse system requirements. NAD has developed two unique features that endow the CI9120 with exceptional flexibility.

Flex-Pad:

The Flex-Pad allows the CI9120 to drive from 1 to 12 independent zones, in any configuration of stereo or mono (or in mixed combination), without resorting to the confusion, sonic degradation, and questionable reliability of switches. Instead, the Flex-Pad uses the tried and true patch-bay concept to configure the amplifier channels. The configuration is visually obvious, making it easier for technicians to set up the system and to troubleshoot for system errors. The supplied patch cables can be easily reconfigured or replaced. This can be especially important and can greatly simplify future service calls years down the road (especially if system documentation is missing or incomplete).

ATO Logic:

The CI9120 can be turned on in any one of three ways, for complete system flexibility:
1. From the front panel switch.
2. Via the 12 volt trigger circuit.
3. By a switchable "sleep/wake" signal-sensing circuit. This
is managed by the Automated Turn-On Logic (ATO Logic) circuit that requires the amplifier to be switched back to standby in the same manner by which it was activated. In other words, if it is switched on via a 12V control signal, it cannot be switched to standby via the front-panel switch, it must wait for the 12V signal.

Summary:

High power, bullet-proof reliability, absolute protection and safety, combined with flexibility and NAD sound quality make the CI9120 unique in the world of custom installation. Very small physical size and the standard rack mount (3U) front panel are just icing on the cake (The CI9120's little brother, the 6 channel CI 9060 is the same physical size, making future expansion easy). Individual level trims for each channel help make installation faster and easier. This is a new kind of amplifier that brings NAD's core values of performance, value, and simplicity to the custom installation market place.

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