Violectric HPA V280, User Manual

Page 1: ...1 HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER HPA V280 USER s MANUAL ...

Page 2: ...nnectors 9 General 10 Operation 11 About balanced headphone amps 17 Things to know 24 Disposal 29 Dismantling 30 Jumper Settings 31 Technical Data 32 Conformity Statement 33 Warranty 34 CAUTION THE HIGH OUTPUT LEVELS ACHIEVABLE WITH THIS UNIT MAY DAMAGE YOUR HEARING OR THE HEADPHONES IF OPERATED CARELESSLY ...

Page 3: ...High End market with its specific requirements Who develops equipment devices are exclusively developed in Germany by the engineers of Lake People electronic GmbH In doing so the team of developers can draw on twenty years of experience and countless products for the pro audio domain Among others the first German made 20 bit A D and D A converters were developed by Lake People in the early ninetie...

Page 4: ...ices are covered by a 24 month warranty In case of any malfunction during this period they can be shipped to the manufacturer directly Of course the client will benefit from s and Lake People s full technical support even when warranty has expired Any technical questions or need for advice is welcome is a subsidiary of LAKE PEOPLE electronic GmbH Turmstrasse 7a D 78467 Konstanz Fon 49 0 7531 73678...

Page 5: ...tion to cords at plugs convenience receptacles and the point where they exit from the appliance This unit is equipped with a 3 pole mains cable with German 3 pin mains plug In some countries this unit must be operated with a mains adaptor supplied by the owner Please refer to the table below to connect a mains plug OVERVIEW POWER CORD FUNCTION AND COLORS CONDUCTOR COLOR Alternativ L LIVE BROWN BLA...

Page 6: ...ser should not attempt to service the appliance beyond the measures described in the operating manual All other servicing or repair should be referred to qualified personnel Electromagnetic Compatibility This unit conforms to the Product Specifications noted as Declaration of Conformity at the end of this manual Operation is subject to the following conditions this device may not cause harmful int...

Page 7: ... jumper As a result the interconnection for DC voltages and lower frequencies 150 Hz will be cut Higher frequencies will be bled off to earth potential through the RC filter The LIFT position is helpful in case of hum or jitter caused by different ground earth potentials Of coarse full electrical protection is garanteed as the case is always connected to ground earth potential See page 25 Technica...

Page 8: ...e enclosure XLR GROUD LIFT Jumper accessible from the inside Mind the SECURITY INSTRUCTIONS G ROUND Ex works all jumpers are set to G ground position Pin 1 is connected to the internal ground reference High frequency interference is deflected to the case via a 100 nF capacitor L IFT The interconnection between Pin 1 and ground is open High frequency interference is deflected to the case via a 100 ...

Page 9: ...9 Connection Connectors for Analog and Digital Signals ...

Page 10: ...put as an option coaxial optical USB up to 192 kHz PRE GAIN switchable input gain in five steps Independent channel design DC coupled switchable ALPS RK27 High Grade volume control High Quality op amps in the signal path High quality MKP capacitors in the signal path 0 1 and 1 metal film resistors throughout the unit 4 with famous V200 technology 1 balanced headphone output Neutrik 4 pin gold plat...

Page 11: ...cket and mating cold appliance mains cord with a dedicated wall plug The device is set to 230 or 115 V AC mains internally whereas the actual voltage may vary between 190 240 V for 230 V and 85 120 volts for 115 V for flawless operation Altering the mains voltage can easily done by a simple internally accessible switch Two large toroidal transformers are providing the internal operating voltages M...

Page 12: ...PIN 3 PHASE UNBALANCED INPUTS For the use with unbalanced signals RCA sockets are provided They are labelled as IN OUT LEFT and IN OUT RIGHT and can be configured as either inputs or outputs about their configuration see page 25 RCA sockets as inputs The RCA sockets are factory preset as inputs and are equipped with integrated switch contacts When a RCA plug is inserted it cuts possible signals ap...

Page 13: ... 108 kHz or 210 kHz resp The OPTO input fitted with a TOS LINK interface accepts digital audio data at sample rates from 28 to 108 kHz or 210 kHz resp The USB type B input can be connected to a host computer PC or laptop The USB module will automatically be detected as an audio device The USB 96 input is compatible with USB 1 1 and 2 0 standards It accepts digital audio formats up to 24 bit at sam...

Page 14: ... control of the host application should be set to 100 Too loud Too soft The PRE GAIN method The V280 is specially designed to drive headphones Headphones however can present load impedances from 8 to 2000 ohms and efficiency ratios from 85 to 115dB per milliwatt Thus it can be quite tricky to fulfil all demands since owners of high effectivity headphones will rarely set the volume control higher t...

Page 15: ...at softer in order to improve volume control range e g push the switch labelled 6dB half gain or 12dB quarter gain in upward direction If you find your HPA V280 should provide more gain do so with the switch labelled 6 dB double gain or 12 dB quadruple gain Ex factory all switches are set to their lowest position i e 0 dB or unity gain which should be sufficient for most applications OPERATION Mos...

Page 16: ...rall gain is set to 8 dB in order to provide sufficient reserves also for high impedance headphones THE BALANCED HEADPHONE OUTPUT The HPA V280 offers a balanced headphone output This is equipped with a gold plated female 4 pin XLR connector Balanced Headphone socket pinout Pin 1 Left channel Pin 2 Left channel Pin 3 Right channel Pin 4 Right channel THE UNBALANCED HEADPHONE OUTPUTS The HPA V280 of...

Page 17: ...e ask ATTENTION Your headphone is double as loud as normal in balanced mode About Balanced Headphone Amplifiers Different kinds of balanced applications and their advantages The balanced signal line is used to maximize the noise and hum immunity of the signal line Who ever made a military service perhaps knows about the field telephone which is a very simple thing without any electronics inside an...

Page 18: ...put of the differential amp In the real world this is not achieved by 100 You have to consider voltage and impedance ratios what can be determined as CMRR or Common Mode Rejection Ratio The higher the technical efforts the better the results Besides the fact that balanced signals offer enhanced interference immunity compared to unbalanced signals the next advantage is that the screen from the cabl...

Page 19: ...d and are fed to the left and right load Balanced amps are not new at all but known for a long time e g in car radios where this technique is taken to achieve quad power out of a limited supply voltage 12 V Balanced amps are also called Push Pull Amps or BTL amps Bridge Terminated Load Take a look ...

Page 20: ...ere are several other impedances which should be taken into account All these are able to impair the proper driving of the load Impedances are a complex mix of resistive capacitive and inductive parameters which may lead to an instable operation of an amp when the capacity of a cable is too high To keep things simple for the following examinations only the resistive parts shall be taken into accou...

Page 21: ...onnectivity from phone jack to phone socket because of much too big contact surfaces The ground potential is not static but suffers from voltage drops caused by the internal impedances and the influence of the common ground cable from the normal headphone The ground potential is polluted by a summed left right signal a mono signal which can be measured and heard as crosstalk and intermodulation A ...

Page 22: ...enough amplitude even for high impedance loads So what is the sense of a balanced headphone amplifier As mentioned earlier a simple amp has the ground potential as its reference point To be more precise it is not any point of the ground plane but the ground pin s from the transformer The output amplitude swings preferably symmetrical around this reference point otherwise we would talk about DC off...

Page 23: ...ve loads and only few complex parts The special feature of the combination of a balanced amp with a balanced headphone is the superb channel separation I want to state that also the channel separation of normal headphones and amps is much better than most program material So there are not many complaints about maybe because most users don t know about the better way Sometimes even the high channel...

Page 24: ...rks Beyerdynamic T1 T5 T5P possible Beyerdynamic DT 880 not possible HiFi Man possible for all headphones partly equipped with balanced connectors ex works Sennheiser HD 600 HD 650 HD 700 HD 800 possible Ultrasone Edition 8 Edition 10 possible Things to know Why makes it sense to make such huge efforts A headphone amplifier is a device designed to condition audio signals with regard to the very sp...

Page 25: ...es the useful signal can be affected by interference s Interferences however are in phase on both wires and fed to the differential amplifier as well Again the amplifier detects the difference between the interference contents s s 0 Thus in an ideal situation all interference on the signal path is eliminated Why are discrete signal paths important Twin op amps are the most common design for operat...

Page 26: ...und pressure With the volume control fully clockwise the V280 would provide 2 5V at 8dB gain only much to low for the headphone By means of PRE GAIN input level can be boosted by 12dB four times resulting in effective 4V These are again multiplied by 2 5 now equalling 10V This is still not enough but far closer to the optimum value The headphone achieves 114dB sound pressure level Why does frequen...

Page 27: ...induced when it swings back to its initial position This current must be suppressed as far as possible which is effected best if the amplifier s output impedance is the lowest possible The damping factor describes nothing but the ratio between output impedance of an amplifier and a given load Since there is no known technical specification we define the load voice coil impedance as 50 ohms With V2...

Page 28: ... 0 standards It accepts digital audio formats up to 24 bit at sample rates of 44 1 48 and 96 kHz while 88 2 kHz is not supported The 96 kHz digital modules comprise a D A converter with a dynamic range of 110 dB and 100dB THD N thus ranging in the upper mid performance class There are TWO different USB 192 modules compatible with the USB 2 0 standard Both require a proprietary driver which can be ...

Page 29: ...le in the European Union and other European countries with separate collection systems This symbol on the product or on its packaging indicates that this product shall not be treated as household waste Instead it shall be handed over to the applicable collection point for the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment By ensuring this product is disposed of correctly you will help prevent po...

Page 30: ...Only thereafter the settings can be altered without any hazard DISMANTLING To avoid damages please follow the instruction below 1 screw off both upper screws on the front panel 2 screw off both upper screws on the back panel 3 unscrew both lower screws on the front panel by 3 5 turns to tilt the front panel a bit 4 now lift the upper lid 5 make your personal jumper settings 5 assemble the unit in ...

Page 31: ...31 JUMPER SETTING HPA V280 ...

Page 32: ...al 0 165 Ohm bal Damping factor Load 50 Ohm 600 unbal 300 bal Dynamic range 128 dB A wtd Noise 94 dBu A wtd THD N 1kHz 2x10V 100R 1W 102 dB 0 0008 THD N 1kHz 2x4V 32R 0 5W 99 dB 0 001 Crosstalk 115 dB 1 kHz 105 dB 15 kHz Headphone outputs 1 x 4 pin XLR 2 x 6 3 mm Phone Jack Max output level RL x 2 Ua dBu Ua V Pa mW 1kHz 0 1 THD N 600 32 6 32 9 1800 300 31 2 28 2 2650 Balanced operation 100 29 4 23...

Page 33: ...f conformity with regard to electromagnetic compatibility the following harmonized standards are applied EN 50081 1 1992 Generic emission standard EN 50082 1 1992 Generic immunity standard Product family standard for audio video audio visual entertainment apparatus EN 55013 2001 EN 61000 3 2 2000 EN 55020 2002 EN 61000 3 3 1995 2011 65 EU RoHS directive 2012 19 EU WEEE directive Member No DE 26076...

Page 34: ...iration of the warranty If it is necessary please dispatch your item to Lake People electronic GmbH Fon 49 0 7531 73678 Turmstrasse 7a Fax 49 0 7531 74998 D 78467 Konstanz E Mail info lake people de Your warranty claim begins with the date of purchase which should be denoted on your proof of purchase Do not forget to include the receipt of sales or a copy of the receipt Please also include a short...