The signal path is totally discrete and the design is fully balanced throughout for optimum noise rejection

The design’s very wide bandwidth provides exceptional transparency and resolution.

High voltage power supply rails ensure a very wide dynamic range.

The volume control uses a sophisticated relay-switched resistor network design, allowing precise adjustment with very accurate channel balance. This also gives the volume control stage a constant input and output impedance, which prevents the changes in sound quality that can occur at different settings with simpler designs. 

The heart of an amplifier is the power supply, so great care was taken with the design to ensure that it would be able to provide the audio section with a source of power that was as stable and noise free as possible.

The preamplifier’s incoming mains power is not routed through the power switch, as these can have a detrimental effect on the sound.  Instead, this switch supplies power to the standby circuit and when the front panel On button is pressed, this turns on a high-current relay which connects the mains source to the unit’s power supply.

The power supplies for the audio and control sections have their own independent toroidal power transformers.  These were chosen for their low external magnetic fields. To reduce this further, they are housed in their own screened enclosures.

High quality power supply capacitors are used with additional decoupling capacitors located physically as close as possible to where they are needed in the circuit.

Great care was also taken with the internal grounding to prevent the introduction of noise.

As a further noise reduction measure, a front panel ground lift switch allows the amplifier’s signal ground to be disconnected from the chassis safety ground and is useful in eliminating hum when this is caused by a ground loop. This is where there is more than one ground connection between two pieces of audio equipment, thus forming a loop. This can act as a single turn coil and stray magnetic fields from nearby equipment and/or power cables can induce a mains frequency current in this loop, which then produces a hum that is heard from the loudspeakers. If this is the cause of hum in a system, using the ground lift switch to break this loop will stop the hum.