CE Pro January 2023 - 60

CE Products
FIELD TEST | EDITOR'S PICK | NEW PRODUCTS
New Nero Amps
Help OSD Audio
Extend Reach into
Home Theaters
By Robert Archer
ONE OF THE custom electronics'
industry's best kept
secrets is OSD Audio. Back
in its early days the company
entered the market through a
range of outdoor audio solutions.
Over time it has since
ventured into whole-house
audio and now home theater
with its new Nero line of multichannel
amplifiers.
These new amplifiers are
designed to provide high
power at reasonable price
points without sacrificing
sound quality. After receiving
the 7- and 3-channel versions,
I paired the amplifiers
with a new Integra DRX-3.4
9.2-channel receiver to serve
as the preamplifier/processor
in a 7.4.2 immersive audio
system. Consider OSD Audio
no longer a secret - these
solutions are worth investigating
for yourself.
Features & Setup
Starting with the larger
of the two home theater
amplifiers, the Nero-XA7180
is a 7-channel amplifier
rated to produce 130 watts
into an 8-ohm load and 215
watts into a 4-ohm load.
Internally, the amp feaThe
OSD Audio Nero
amps accept both banana
plugs and spades.
tures Class H technologies
that are highlighted by seven
individual amplifier modules
within a single chassis,
along with 6800 μF internal
capacitance per channel, and
a .9 kVA toroidal transformer-based
power supply.
The Nero-XA7180 offers
installer-friendly features
such as RCA and XLR inputs,
12-volt triggers, auto signal
sensing, and front-panel
yellow, blue and red status
indicators.
OSD Audio's NeroXA3200
3-channel amplifier
is rated to deliver
165-watts into an 8-ohm
load and 270-watts into
a 4-ohm load. Under the
hood, the XA3200 employs
60 | CE Pro January 2023
The Nero-XA7180 features Class H technologies highlighted
by seven individual amp modules within a single chassis.
a similar design to the
Nero-XA7180, including
the same Class H design,
as well as the same
internal capacitance per
channel, and the same
toroidal-based transformer
power supply.
Wrapping up the similar
features of the amplifiers,
the Nero-XA3200's rear
panel provides the same
XLR and RCA inputs, along
with the 12-volt trigger and
auto signal sensing options.
Setting up the amplifiers
was easy. Using
Integra's brand new DRX3.4
9.2-channel network
receiver, which I employed
as a preamplifier/processor
through the inclusion of the
AVR's pre-out connections,
I ran RCA cables from the
DRX-3.4's pre-outs to the
amplifiers' RCA inputs. These
connections took just a few
moments. Next, I ran 3.5mm
cables from the trigger outputs
of the Integra DRX-3.4
to the 12-volt trigger inputs
of the amplifiers.
On the amplifiers' rear
panels there are threeway
toggle switches that
allowed me to choose
between " on, " " signal " and
" trigger, " for which I selected
trigger to finish up with
that configuration.
Lastly, I connected the
speaker cables to the amps'
binding posts. The Nero
amps accepted both banana
plugs and spades without an
issue. Completing the setup
of the amplifiers, I plugged
the components into a
Torus Power unit.
As I noted earlier, the
setup went smoothly. My
only word of caution is the
amps are heavy (the XA3200
weighs 48 pounds; the
XA7180, 65), so consideration
must be taken to safely move
the OSD products around.
Performance &
Conclusions
In today's audio world, it's
hard to beat the value of an
AV receiver. These components
incorporate all the amcepro.com
http://www.cepro.com
CE Pro January 2023

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