NuForce HAP-100, User Manual, Page: 5 / 9

3
Introduction
The HAP-100 preamp and headphone amplifier has been designed for the audio enthusiast
for whom quality headphone listening is a top priority. The HAP-100’s innovative engineering
combines features never before available at this price point. Most significantly, the HAP-100
provides headphone listeners with single-ended Class-A performance – considered by
many to be the ultimate in high-fidelity design.
Similarly, the HAP-100 incorporates the same volume control technology we first developed
for our flagship P-20 preamp. At the unit’s core is a switched-resistor ladder network of low-
noise, thin-film resistors, one per volume setting, permitting discrete, high-resolution
increments of 1dB for each of the HAP-100's one hundred volume steps. In welcome addition
to the volume control’s fine-adjustment precision, the signal’s passage through a single, high-
quality resistor at all settings ensures minimal sound degradation.
Following this, a pristine, zero-negative-feedback preamplifier stage delivers vanishingly low
levels of distortion, crystalline accuracy and genuine musicality. A true minimalist design, the
preamp incorporates an extremely low-noise FET input stage and single high-quality
capacitor in the entire signal path.
The HAP-100 is built on a platform that provides the unit’s audio circuits with the purest of DC
power. With its toroidal transformer for minimizing magnetic-field interference and capacitor
bank’s massive energy reserve, the HAP-100’s linear power supply delivers explosive
dynamics and lightning-fast transients.
The HAP-100’s specs are nothing short of stellar: THD+N of less than 0.001% and a dynamic
range in excess of 110 dB for the subtlest of musical details against the blackest of
backgrounds – without a hint of coloration. The HAP-100’s performance, features, style and
price are bound to delight.
Features:
l A preamplifier stage providing 5dB of gain with zero negative feedback for
fatigue-free listening
l A single-ended Class A headphone amplifier stage (a design topology long held
by audiophiles to be the last word in headphone reproduction)
l Top-grade relays for input selection
l A linear power supply employing a toroidal transformer, large capacitor reserves
and high-speed regulation for fast, clean power to all circuits
l
A signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 100dB
l THD+N = 0.002%, assuring the ultimate in accurate reproduction
l Four low-noise, stereo RCA inputs
l One RCA stereo output offering a full 7.8Vrms to effortlessly drive any amplifier
l A front-panel 6.3mm jack for large, over-ear headphones
l A stylish three-digit display (setting 1 for input selection / settings 2 and 3 for
output levels from 00-99)
l
A full-featured remote control