icon Audio HP 205D Manual

IMPORTANT!
THIS MANUAL CONTAINS
ESSENTIAL HEALTH & SAFETY
INFORMATION FOR YOU AND
YOUR AMPLIFIER. PLEASE
READ & KEEP SAFE AND
REFER TO IF NECESSARY
No Compromise High End Pure Valve SE Headphone Amplifier
About the HP 205D
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 from an integrated 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) this gives very "Low
FI" results. Ideally headphones should be driven
from small high
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 HP 205D is in fact a low powered high quality
integrated hi fi amplifier. We use a custom wound
multi-tap output transformer which provides perfect
matching to virtually any headphone load. The power
supply begins with a substantial mains transformer.
The "high tension" or HT voltage is rectified by a
valve, then filtered through a high quality "choke" to
give the finest quality power. Each 205D has its own
DC supply for a quiet background.
The separate power supply means that the amplifier
section is not contaminated my mains RF noise.
We found the 1950s ECC88 to be a good choice for
driving the 205D. Finally the output comes from our
icon Audio
HP 205D
Pure Triode Headphone Amplifier
quality amplifiers.
Manual
own hand-wound multi-tap output transformers. The
HP 205D tops the scales at 6.5kg, giving you an idea
of how much copper and iron you get for your money!
Like our other models the HP 205D has no printed
circuit board and is all hard wired with top quality
components. We use silver PTFE audio cable, gold
plated terminals and the famous "ALPS" volume pot
from Japan for sonic purity.
The first stage gain uses the excellent ECC88. This
wonderful valve has exceptional detail and fluidity. Its
smoothness
combination will give you a simply stunning insight
into inner detail of your favourite recordings whether
Analogue or digital.
Many
Like other Icon Audio amplifiers, close attention has
been paid to the finish of the HP 205D. 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 avoid the
use of "tin and plastic"!
The HP 205D is very versatile. It may be 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.
complements the 205D. This
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