Octave Super Black Box

The Octave Super Black Box is an external passive power supply extension for Octave integrated and power amplifiers — the larger and more capable of the Black Box options. It offers an instrument for optimizing the Octave amplifier's interaction with the loudspeaker, and this flexibility is a unique feature of the Octave brand: the dynamic and tonal stability of an amplifier is strongly dependent upon the stability and capacity of the power supply, and the Super Black Box increases the amplifier's power-supply storage capacitance by a factor of 10 (versus 4x for the standard Black Box).

The tremendous benefit shows most obviously when the connected loudspeaker is difficult to drive. Loudspeaker efficiency becomes less critical, while the amplifier is enabled to handle speakers with minimum impedances as low as 2 ohms with rock-solid stability. Beyond that difficult-load use case, the power-supply capacitance increase stabilizes current delivery and reduces the impedance interaction of the load — improving dynamic range, separation, depth, soundstage size, and articulation, rendering the musical reproduction clearer throughout the entire frequency range. The amplifier remains unaffected by mains variations and interferences due to the noise filtering characteristics of the capacitors.

The Super Black Box is compatible with all current Octave amplifiers: V 40 (SE), V 70 (SE), V 70 Class A, V 80 (SE), V 110 (SE), V 16 Single Ended integrated amplifiers, and the RE 320, MRE 220 (SE) power amplifiers. Legacy compatibility includes the RE 290 stereo power amp. Not compatible with older discontinued models: V 50, V 50 MKII, RE 280, RE 280 MKII, MRE 120, MRE 130.

Discharge electronics discharge the capacitors safely in 2 seconds when disconnected. Dimensions 200 x 150 x 350 mm, weight 5.6 kg. Silver or Black chassis. Cable length 1 m standard; special lengths on request. Available at LMC.