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icon Audio
HP 8
Instructions
Dedicated All Valve Headphone Amplifier
No Compromise High End Pure Valve SE Headphone Amplifier
About the HP 8
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.
Designed in Leicester by David Shaw
The conventional way to provide a headphone
output on an amplifier is to drop the power
through a resistor. This has a big problem that it
provides very high source impedance (rather like
a weak battery) the effect of this is to give very
“Low FI” results. Ideally headphones should be
driven from small high quality amplifiers. Many
headphone amplifiers use small “microchip”
amps which although are a better solution still do
not provide ideal matching to the wide range of
headphones available.
Our HP8 is in fact a small integrated hi fi amplifier.
We use a custom wound multi-tap output
transformer which provides perfect matching to
virtually any headphone load. We start with a
substantial mains transformer with matching
power supply and two output transformers. The
HP8 tops the scales at 6.5kg, giving you an idea
of how much iron you get for your money!
Like our other models the HP8 has no printed
circuit board and is all hard wired with top quality
components. We use silver Teflon audio cable,
gold plated terminals and the famous “ALPS”
volume pot for sonic purity.
The first stage gain uses the excellent ECC83. This
wonderful valve has exceptional detail and fluidity. Its
smoothness complements the super JJ EL84 (a small
version of the excellent EL34). This combination will
give you a simply stunning insight into inner detail of
your favourite
recordings whether Analogue or digital.
We have also provided speaker terminals on the rear
to further increase the versatility. Although 2+2w
(RMS) does sound much it can give surprisingly good
results in an office or bedroom environment where
high sound levels are not required. Indeed, used with
high efficiency speakers (e.g. Lowther/Fostex etc) it
will fill a room with full range sound.
Like our other amplifiers, close attention has been
paid to the finish of the HP8. It uses the same “Bullet
Proof”* build (*Hi Fi News/Hi Fi Choice) as our other
amplifiers with a combination of anodised alloy plate,
stainless and painted steel. We do not use “tin and
plastic”!
For space saving we have used the same
“lengthways” chassis as our phono pre-amp so it will
fit nicely alongside your existing equipment, with the
connections on the rear, and headphone socket at the
front.
The HP8 is very versatile. It may connected to your hi
fi in several ways:
1, In a normal hi fi system you would connect to the
“record out” of your amplifier. This will then be directly
connected to the “source” that you have selected.
2, If your amplifier does not have a suitable output,
splitter leads may be used.
3, With “Pre and power” systems a connection may
be made from the pre-amplifier.
4, As a stand alone unit you can directly connect to
any CD/MP3 player.
