Rack Advantaged
Classé has been designing and manufacturing high-end electronics in Canada since 1980. Our passion for audio has not changed over the years but the technologies we use have become much more diverse and sophisticated. So have our customers.

Today, many of our products are destined for Home Theaters and they are often installed in professional equipment racks. Our customers therefore need high-performance, high-power components that are tailored to the rack environment.

With the launch of the revolutionary Custom Theater (CT) series, such products finally exist.

The CT series is a completely new range of rack-mountable amplifiers and a surround sound processor. And it’s not just new. It is genuinely unique. It is the first range of world class high-end electronics to have been specifically designed for the reality of today’s home theater.

If you intend to build or upgrade a rack-based Home Theater, the CT series is for you. In addition to superb performance and awesome power, CT components benefit from an array of features tailored to life in an equipment rack. Special features include:

Intelligent Cooling Tunnel
Conventional high-end amplifiers use heatsinks that are simply shaped pieces of metal which exploit the principle of high thermal mass. They are slow to heat up, slow to cool down, and they rely on placement and ambient air to extract heat from the amplifier.

However, they eventually heat up their environment and as the air around them gets hotter, they become part of the problem. For this reason, high-powered amps and racks or cabinets don’t easily mix.

The ICTunnel™ (aka the Icy Tunnel) is more sophisticated. The ICTunnel™ utilizes an aluminum bonded-fin heatsink, a technology usually reserved for high powered medical, laser and test equipment. It exploits the principle of low thermal mass, so it heats quickly but can also be cooled quickly. Inside its relatively small size are fins providing nearly 31 square feet of surface area. The key to its operation is how the fins are spaced—as close as possible to each other to maximize the surface area inside the tunnel, but not so close as to heat each other. The ICTunnel™ utilizes a noiseless fan along with pressure and temperature sensors to maintain the amplifier’s target temperature.

Detachable Quiet Flow™ Faceplate
Though crafted from solid, grade 6063-T6 aluminum, the CT faceplate is a component of the cooling system. The central panel is mounted offset from the faceplate, creating a large, hidden ventilation shaft. The large opening minimizes the sound of air flowing into the ICTunnel™. Dust is prevented from passing into the heatsink fins by a sensor-controlled washable filter which signals when it needs to be washed.

The faceplate is also detachable, virtually eliminating the risk of scratching during the installation process.

Adjustable Rack Rails
Adjustable rack rails* are included in the box with each CT series component. They attach to the front and back of the equipment rack and support the component along its sides. The unit is slid into place and secured to the equipment rack. This process allows heavy amplifiers to be more easily installed in the rack. It also enables dealers to assemble equipment racks for testing prior to installation and transport them safely to the job site.

*The rails can be adjusted to fit racks of 19.85” (504mm), 25.85” (657mm) and 30.85” (784mm) depth.