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Because the power transformer is in the external box, the HP500 SE preamplifier is lighter than expected. That makes its handles more fashion statement than pure necessity. To remove the perf cover requires a long and very skinny Philips driver to reach through one of the cover's square holes each. I didn't have a suitable one in my arsenal but a trip to the local home depot filled out my collection. Smartly, the two rear screws thus accessed can't be screwed out of their retainers completely so as to make retightening a cinch (rather than fretting over how to get the buggers back into place without a magnetized wand). The 'simple 'n' effective' theme continues like a recurring Wagner leit motif.
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From the V80's Super Black Box, we've already observed how Octave believes in the capacity of the capacitance. The HP 500 SE sports its own banks that, for the purposes of small-signal amplification, seem quite overkill.

The balanced outputs are transformer-coupled and impedance compensated as such things are properly done.

Without the phono board option, the tube complement is a simple trio of one triode and two pentodes.

The delayed turn-on process is a quite lengthy 4 minutes during which instant gratificationers might come to the wrong conclusion. The same delay is operative from a cold start as well as standby.

As the photos show, parts density is quite high, transistors make appearances and construction is a combination of circuit board, ribbon cables and screw block terminals.

So much for tech and history. The big Esoteric A-100 integrated became the first comparator - and Octave's HP500 SE preamp compared to Esoteric's C-03. Even with the Super Black Box upgrade, the Octave amp remains significantly more affordable yet its fixed bias in pentode mode increases RMS power from the Esoteric's 45wpc to a stout 70 watts per side (80 peak). More for less then or just paper-tiger roars?