Cinepro 3k6II Gold Six-Channel Fully Balanced Power Amplifier

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These days, it is easy to spend a ton of money on a processor, receiver, power amplifier, cables, and speakers. And, I mean you can spend six figures. The problem is how much improvement do you get for the top dollar item vs. mid-hi-fi stuff? In some cases, you get plenty, while with others, maybe not so much. Sometimes, even the chassis of a high-performance product can be thousands of dollars in the MSRP. Well, Cinepro is here with a fantastic muscle amp that is a top performer, with parts quality of products costing several times more, and maybe even a few things the others don't have, such as gold plated circuit boards.

The Design

The Cinepro 3k6 SE Gold is a six-channel, 425 watt per channel (into 8 Ohms), power amplifier that just begs to be in your home theater. Their multi-channel amps have been very popular with professional installers for some time, hence the name Cinepro, which does have the ring of the pro market. At 425 watts per channel, the 3k6 is probably the most powerful multi-channel amplifier in the world. And, these 425 watts have the power supply to back them up. A huge 4.2 kW toroidal power transformer delivers ï¿½ 95 volts to six 25,000 �F capacitors, for 677 joules of energy storage. That is one big power supply! There are three voltage gain stages, and the output stage of each channel has fourteen 250 watt bipolar transistors. LEDs on the front panel light up for each channel when there is a signal, and there is an additional LED for each channel in the situation where you overdrive the amplifier. I never encountered such a situation, even with electrostatic speakers, so I think the only purpose they would serve is to make you feel more secure when cranking a Stallone movie.

Below is a photo of the inside of the chassis. The monster toroidal is at the bottom right corner, and next to that on the left is the power supply circuitry. At the top of the photo can be seen one of the three two-channel amplifier PC boards. Each channel has 14 output devices. The rear panel (top of photo) has a dual fan, which runs very quietly all the time. This keeps the amplifier cool whether or not it is being driven hard. When the amplifier is first turned on, a special circuit turns on the fan at a mid speed level, then powers it down to a point it is barely audible even when standing close to the amplifier and no music is playing.