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ICE amps need cooling?

I've been looking for an amp to power my Maggies and was doing some research on these ICE modules from B&O. While reading the data sheet I saw that the model 1000 that puts out 525 watts into 8 Ohms and 1,000 watts into 4 Ohms it gave a specification of Power(FTC) of 80 watts continuous. Now I remember back in the 70's during the receiver wars the FTC mandated that power ratings be standardized to something like "100 wpc continuous into 8 Ohms with no more than X% distortion" This was to stop all the unrealistic power claims of huge power output for a brief time under tremendous distortion. It made the playing field level so consumers could at least get what they were expecting. So I see that the ICE module has a power rating of only 80 watts continuous! Now that is a far cry from the 500 watts they are bragging about. Have all amplifier specs abandoned the FTC ruling, or is the ICE module just blowing smoke? The B&O site also stated that with heat sinks or fan cooling the power rating could go up. Most ICE amps I see on the market don't have any heat sinks or even ventilation for that matter. So are we all buying ICE amps that can deliver their stated output power for only brief times, and actually put out only a fraction of the power for any sustained period of time? I'm no expert and I just saw this today so I am asking the the members with lots of knowledge in this area to respond and please clear this up. Thanks.
koestner
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Well congratulations on the change Vince.

It must have been difficult to improve on the Scintilla. I owned both Calipers and Duetta Signatures; both are very very fine speakers.

Bill
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Muralman1 - I don't know what context was that. You stated that digital power supply ICE modules are instituted in mass production of popular electronics - could you provide us with example of popular mass produced electronics with ICE module in it? (I don't know of any). The smallest ICEpower I know with built in switching power supply 200ASC has great reviews in products such as Rowland model 102, Bel Canto S300, M300 etc. I also mentioned before that great sounding Jeff Rowland Continuum 500 has switching power supplies as well as Capri preamp. Reading your post one would thing that serious electronics has linear power supplies and mass production has switchers because they, as you stated, "are not suitable for audio". How do you know that? Do you know something that Jeff Rowland doesn't? Could you clarify what was the context of your statement - maybe I'm missing something.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Kijanki...Don't kick him when he's down!!
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
ü Bang & Olufsen ICEpower a/s doubled its turnover from DKK 50 to DKK
100 million while the result improved by DKK 28 million from DKK 2 mil-
lion during the 2004/05 financial year to DKK 30 million in 2005/06.

There are so many class D auto amps out there I don't care to track down what is inside them.

Here is one that admits it uses ICE.

http://www.caraudiomag.com/0607_cae_alpine_pdx_4150_amplifier/index.html
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
I'm not down, Eldartford. Not by a long shot. :)
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