L'Esoteric S-05XE is a pure class A stereo power amplifier which takes the place of the S-05 and takes up the design philosophy of the Great S1X. Delivers 30W per channel into 8 ohms in class A, 60W into 4 ohms and 120W into 8 ohms in modalità ponte (BTL), with the architecture dual mono maintained at all stages, including power filtering.
The final stage is a Push-pull three-pair parallel bipolar transistor, with compensation of fase single-pole, coil-free output, and minimal feedback to avoid losing dynamic energy. All transistors are aligned at the lowest point of the amplifier block, where the temperature varies the least: they operate under the same thermal conditions and the quiescent current stabilizes quickly after power-up. 105 µm copper tracks, large-section wires secured with bolts, eight 1 mm OFC bars, and MOSFET switches on the outputs reduce the internal impedance: the damping factor is 500.
There is a new entrance fully symmetric balanced buffer which converts each signal to balanced before amplification and eliminates common-mode noise; it is isolated from the logic with an optocoupler and all switching in the audio path uses MOSFET switches. The power supply is based on a new 1.000 VA toroidal transformer mounted without casing and on a filter circuit dual redesigned mono, with four custom Grandioso-grade 10.000 µF capacitors per channel.
Is an S-05XE enough for less efficient speakers? In stereo it delivers 30W per channel, but with two units in modaliBTL ty each power amp becomes a 120W monoblock into 8 ohms (speakers from 8 to 16 ohms). In modalibi-amp ty, always with two units, the left and right outputs receive the same signal and separately drive the high and low sections of speakers set up for bi-wiring, at 30 W per channel and with maximum resolution. The input ES-Link Analog, together with XLR and RCA, allows for an essential system with the N-05XE network DAC preamplifier. ES-Link Analog is the proprietary Esoteric link to trasmissionand current: with an output of about 1 kohm and an input of 0 ohm it makes a current flow in the cable about 100 times higher than that of a normal voltage connection and makes the signal independent of the impedance of the cable.
The chassis uses solid aluminum blocks for the enclosure, a semi-floating lid with ventilation openings inspired by the double honeycomb grille of the Grandioso power amplifiers, specially structured feet, and heat sinks with corrugated fins that disperse resonances. The trigger input and pass-through trigger output allow for preamplifier-controlled power-on.