Auralic TAURUS MKII

AURALiC TAURUS MKII

Begins from the pursuit of an extraordinary amplifier that can well match with modern top quality headphones, inspired by the soul of Rupert Neve’s legendary design philosophy, bearing with modern simple style appearance, TAURUS MKII is born with a perfect coalescence of classic and pop elements.

The smooth, rich and detailed voice of this headphone amplifier is a succession of AURALiC’s elegant and graceful aesthetic taste.

Referring to Neve analog console’s circuit design, AURALiC invent the ORFEO Class-A output module and fit them into TAURUS MKII.

The ORFEO module offers great driving ability by delivers 1000mW (600ohm) to 4500mW (32ohm) power into various loads; this allows TAURUS MKII to squeeze out every headphone’s capabilities, unfold the beauty of their unique sonic style.

Resorting to the ultra low noise input buffer tailored by AURALiC, TAURUS MKII has a wide dynamic range greater than 130dB while maintains the output noise less than 5uV.

With such astonishing performance, TAURUS is able to capture the most tiny music expression coming from the source component.

The TAURUS MKII builds on the design of the original award-winning TAURUS, launched in 2010, by concentrating all surface-mounted components in an audio signal path.

It also increased the TAURUS’ EMI shielding, reducing noise from the input buffer to 0.8uV, less than half the level of the original.

Additionally, AURALiC improved the input switch circuit to increase the isolation among different input channels, which boosts performance when the TAURUS MKII is connected to multiple sources.

Smoothed music expression, sophisticated circuit design and brilliant appearance; TAURUS MKII is another exemplary works designed by AURALiC.

AURALiC TAURUS MKII Technical Features

AURALiC ORFEO Class-A Output Module

Inspired by Neve 8078 analog console’s circuit design, AURALiC developed ORFEO Class-A output module. The principle of this module is to use a mass of small signal components with best linear characteristic.

By packing them though a thermal balance procedure and bias the transistors into Class-A, ORFEO achieves impressive performance with open loop distortion less than 0.001%.

With such sophisticated module, TAURUS MKII shares the same warm and natural sound with Neve 8078.

Low Noise Input Buffer

The input buffer of TAURUS MKII is specifically designed by AURALiC to meet the requirement of headphone amplifier usage.

This buffer offers an exclamatory low noise of less than 0.8uV while maintains high input impedance (100K of RCA and 200K of XLR).

The low noise input buffer endues TAURUS MKII with a dynamic range over 130dB and possible to fit into any kind of source, even with high output impedance devices such as valve buffered CD, it can still easily capture every details and ensure the reality of music impression.

Real-time Switchable Working Mode

With a unique 4-way individual output structure, you can configure TAURUS MKII into standard or balanced working mode by simply pressing the button on the front panel without power off the unit or unplug the headphone.

In the standard mode, TAURUS MKII can output 4500mW continuous and undistorted power into 32ohm, satisfy the toughest headphone’s driving requirement; when facing high impedance loads, TAURUS MKII can also deliver 1000mW continuous and undistorted power into 600ohm in balanced mode.

Such flexible design allows TAURUS MKII to match most modern top quality headphones in a perfect way.

Specifications

Frequency response

3Hz – 300KHz, +/- 3dB
20Hz – 20KHz, +/- 0.1dB

THD+N

<0.002%, 20Hz-20KHz at rated output

Dynamic Range

>130dB, 20Hz-20KHz,  A-weighted

Crosstalk

<-80dB at 1KHz

Output Power (continuous in RMS)

Input Ports

RCA: Sensitivity: 4Vrms; Maximum: 12Vrms

XLR: Sensitivity: 4Vrms; Maximum: 12Vrms

Output Ports

6,35mm Stereo Headphone Jack

4PIN XLR Headphone Jack

RCA pre out

XLR pre out

Power dissipation

50W at max.

Dimensions

11”W x 9”D x 2.6”H (33cm x 23cm x 6.5cm)

Weight

8 pounds (3.6kg)