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Linestage front and rear. The front panel sports two large control knobs – the ubiquitous input selector and volume control. They have no stops to only serve as optical encoders. They are mounted on solid 41mm ball bearings to provide a reassuring sense of operation. In the center we have a large easy-to-read (hooray!) amber display. It can show various settings but in daily use these will be just the selected input and volume level. On either side of the display we have buttons covered by flexible plates in a somewhat 70’s retro style. Pressing their symbols activates the given functions. You can access and exit the menu, enable or disable the display, activate mute or change volume control steps between 0.5 and 1dB. The rear panel looks equally interesting. It is divided into two parts, one for each channel. They are separated by large multi-pin twist-lock connectors for the umbilical cord to the external power supply.

There are six inputs – three Neutrik XLR and three RCAs looking the same as those in Accuphase or Marantz gear. There are also four pairs of line outputs, two each balanced and unbalanced; and one each fixed outputs as monitor loop or to connect a headphone amp. As monitor loops they associate with inputs 3 and 6. The menu can set inputs 2 and 5 to unity gain. Those inputs can be useful as pass through for an external home theater processor. In the menu you can also set individual gain for each input.


Linestage interior. To get inside you need to remove 12 bolts securing the heavy top plate. This reveals an interior neatly divided into two parts by means of a ’tunnel’ running through the center which houses the power connections. At the front we see a carefully shielded PCB with a control microprocessor powered by a separate supply. The gain stage occupies two PCBs – a large one with a power supply, input selector, volume control and input gain stage and a smaller one with the output stages.

The audio signal routes in an unusual way. Initial buffering and preamplification are carried out in separate paths for each input. RCAs sport balancing circuits and Burr Brown OPA2134 and other ICs for gain regulation between the RCA and XLR legs. The signal then couples via large foil capacitors which bear the TAD logo to the resistor-ladder attenuation IC that's also adorned with the TAD logo. From here the signal proceeds to the gain stage based on large complementary pairs of Sanken 2SA1859 and 2SC4883 transistors mounted on sizable heat sinks. Interestingly each channel sports eight transistors separately for the RCA inputs (the signal leaves that section in balanced form) and XLR section and—it thus appears—also separate for each input. Hence there is no parallel connection of inputs. Each of them has its own discrete gain circuit. Afterwards the signal moves to the upper PCB whose outputs are switched by Takamisawa relays and routed via coupling capacitors to the output connectors on the rear panel. The coupling capacitors are shielded by a copper plate.

Another copper shield separates the gain stage transistors from the power supply section. Even though the supply voltage is rectified and filtered by the external power supply unit, the remainder of filters and voltage regulators are located here and thus sit directly adjacent to the audio circuits they serve. We see large capacitors with the TAD logo manufactured by Nippon Chemi-Con as well as Nichicon Muse and Elna Silmic capacitors. It’s obvious that they were selected during listening tests as each section sports a slightly different set of caps. The manufacturer draws attention to their extremely short signal path. Apart from the attenuator there is only a single gain stage. The entire design is of the highest order though it needs to be said that the signal partly travels through shielded cables coupled to the PCBs with pins and plugs.


Remote control. The IR wand has a metal top and plastic bottom finished to nicely fit the hand. There are not too many buttons and those present are logically separated into two sections. The remote, as probably all remotes in the world, is made in China. The preamp is manufactured in Japan.


Power supply unit. The external PSU is housed in a very heavy aluminium enclosure. It is very stylish and finished with black crinkle paint. The front panel only sports a single blue LED, the rear two DC power connectors for the linestage unit, an IEC socket and a mechanical power switch. The interior shows something normally rather associated with high-end amplifiers than preamp power supplies – a massive 400W toroidal transformer and two PCBs for input and output. The former sports large ceramic fuses and an AC filter. The top PCB houses three voltage rectifiers and power filters. That section—let’s call it dirty—is separated from the 'clean' section with a copper plate. The clean section houses a bank of large filter capacitors with the TAD logo just as those in the main unit. Those are bypassed by smaller foil capacitors. The PCB is marked as 'Manufactured by Little Fuse Inc'.
opinia @ highfidelity.pl