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Menard Audio
SA-200 Amplifier


   200 Watts Per Channel

  Total Harmonic Distortion
less than .005%


Product Goals

The target user for the SA-200 amplifier is the music lover who relaxes by spending time just listening to their favorite music. To satisfy this audience, the product goal was to deliver high power, ultra clean, rich stereo sound in a simple analog signal in, amplified power out configuration. A power button would be the only control. The case was to have a "wow" factor and somewhat industrial design, with excellent build quality, excellent fit and finish. Music source was expected to be a Sonos CONNECT component or similar, that would be part of a whole house sound system, including a network music server, and streaming services such as Pandora.  An (overly aggressive) MSRP of $995 was the target.

At the highest level, this translated to technical goals to provide a 200W per channel stereo power amplifier into an 8 ohm load, with total harmonic distortion less than .005%, and noise less than 90dB.  Simple unbalanced RCA inputs would be used to match the Sonos CONNECT outputs. The Sonos system would be used for volume control.

Research Phase
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