New power supply with 3 times the capacitance. Higher bias current for extended Class A operation. 250 watts per channel into 8 ohms, 800 into 2 ohms. Fully discrete balanced bridged circuitry for extraordinary fidelity. Larger, deep-fin heat sink for efficient cooling and outstanding reliability.

Think of Centaur II as a state-of-the-art race car with an upgraded engine. The amplification circuits are essentially the same as in the original Centaur, but the power supply is radically improved. Supply capacitance is now tripled, with 18 10,000-microfarad capacitors replacing the original six. With three times as much stored energy on tap, Centaur II now achieves even stronger deep bass response and more dramatic dynamics.

To make the most of Centaur II’s expanded energy stores, we added a larger heat sink with deeper fins. With this additional cooling efficiency, we were free to raise bias current by 25 percent. The amplifier now spends more time running in Class A, which means less crossover distortion and better retrieval of even the most minuscule musical details.

The new chassis is deeper and 40 percent heavier than the original. Yet the core circuitry, which made the original Centaur one of the world’s most acclaimed amplifiers, remains the same. The concept, created by our “dream team” of audio engineers, was to combine multiple small, single-ended amplifier modules to achieve the power of a large amplifier. This gives us the delicacy and detail of a smaller amplifier with the power and dynamics of a large amp.