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LA 4
Valve Line Amplifier Instructions
About the LA 4
Thank you for purchasing one of our amplifiers, a lot
of care has gone into the design, selection of
components and production of this amplifier. We are
sure that you will hear the difference.
To get the best out of the LA 4. Please read the
enclosed notes. We have tried to give you all the
basic information you will need.
We would
recommend that everyone follows the ‘quick set
up guide’.
Should you be uncertain about anything
to do with your LA 4 please contact your dealer.
The LA 4 is a line amplifier designed to complement
high quality valve or transistor power amplifiers
requiring an input voltage of 1volt or greater. A lower
level output is also provided for more sensitive
amplifiers like Leak, or integrated amplifiers.
Our philosophy is to use traditional valve minimalist,
circuitry. The beauty of valve amplifiers is that they
are usually very simple; therefore with the use of
traditional point-to point construction, modern high
performance low tolerance components, it is possible
to very high sonic performance. This simplicity
enables us to avoid the use of printed circuit boards,
which are not ideal for valve amplifiers despite their
common use.
Although technical performance is important, we
never forget that sound quality takes overriding
priority in our design and production. The LA 4 has a
massive overload capability and even then would go
into ‘soft clipping’, which is much more benign and
easier on the ear than overload with transistors.
The simplicity of the circuit means that there are
much fewer components for the signal to pass
through, fewer connections and switches, again
adding to the purity of sound. This simplicity also
means that we can use higher quality oversized
components, such as 2w resistors.
The use of popular valves, which are still in
production, means that obtaining replacements is
easy and inexpensive when necessary.
In the process of building the LA 4 to its high
standard no corners have been cut and we have also
paid close attention to the appearance.
The remote control has its own separate power
supply so the operation will not influence sonic
qualities.
The final result is an amplifier with excellent
characteristics, with an accurate yet smooth and
transparent quality.