AUDALYTIC HP70 Headphone Amplifier Preamplifier Silver

very good value for money, but needs good matching with power amp
Despite the size the HP70 is a rather solid and well built item; much better in real life than in a picture. I bought it to use it in a second system but I first tested it in my main system, with a Lector 0.6T CD player, Norma power amp and Spendor A7 speakers. Its gain was set at the maximum (+28dB) but I noticed that in order to have a familiar sound pressure level I had to use volume levels of about 70/100 or more. Even removing the psychological effect of rotating the volume knob up to there, I thought it was giving me not much useful range with the volume. The sound quality was very good indeed: it was a very clean (no background noise at all) and very detailed presentation, pretty neutral but not too cold, really impressive considering the size and value of the object. Then I tested it on the other system (Thorens TD124/Denon DL110, Manley Chinook, XTZ Edge power amp and Diapason Adamants speakers), and here the situation was much better. The pressure was more convincing. The volume level was around 60/100, still a bit high but more manageable. I guess the key is a different input sensitivity of the power amp. So I have decided to keep it. I will use it mainly as a preamplifier. Probably as headphones amp it is more universal, but if you want to use it as line preamp have a look at the input sensitivity of your power amp: 2V or close can be too low sensitivity.

Very satisfied
I use it only as a headphone amplifier. The 4 different headphones - three dynamic and one planar - perform excellently. After hours of listening, it does not heat up much. I noticed a big difference when I used the audiophonics lpsu25 power supply instead of the mains supply. As if I were listening to two different audalitic! The minuses - expected at this price - are the lack of presets, e.g. for gain and the absence of equalizer, crossfeed. With power from a linear power supply, the amplifier performs excellently.