Ecler Flexi-power Amplifiers at the Gran Teatre del Liceu

The Philarmonic Lyceum’s success, along with the willingness of important Barcelona’s bourgeoisie members, resulted in the construction of a new and ambitious theatre, which was solemnly inaugurated on April 4th 1847. Yet, the fire which took place on January 31st 1994 destroyed the main saloon and the stage, causing an extraordinary emotional impact among the Catalan society and questioning, on a radical way, the mere existence of the Theatre. As a result, the Gran Teatre Del Liceu Foundation was created and the Gran Teatre Del Liceu Society ceased the ownership of the place to the Gran Teatre Del Liceu Consortium, formed exclusively by public administrations.

Consequently, on October 7th 1999 the new Liceu theatre was inaugurated. A rebuilt with an internal faithful appearance, externally widened using the surrounding buildings lot and dotted with a technical advanced infrastructure.

Recently the entire amplification system for paging purposes installed by a renowned American brand had been substituted by 15 Ecler Flexi-power HZA4-120 Amplifiers. The technical personnel in charge of the facilities were looking for reliability and optimum intelligibility, as well as reducing rack space, an improvement on thermal behavior and adaptability to the previously-installed loudspeakers back in 1999. In this context, Ecler amplifiers worked perfectly with the previously mentioned installation after more than a year of testing. The configurable nature of these Flexi-power amplifiers, exclusive from Ecler, fitted like a glove to the Great Theatre necessities, since a single amplifier could be set up as: 4x120W, 1x240W + 2x120W, 1x360W + 1x120W or 1x480W. All of this, maintaining the high impedance line of 100V.

In this context, The HZA-70F and HZA-120F are 4 linkable channel amplifiers with a direct 100V line output (High impedance), equipped with “SPM 100 Technology-Channel N” patented by Ecler. They allow connecting 100V line loudspeakers without the need of a converter, a common characteristic within this type of amplifiers. This fact brings up several advantages, being the main one an excellent audio quality, specially improving low frequencies response when compared to conventional 100V amplifiers. Moreover, convection cooling system turns the device into a quiet and fanless unit.