LH Labs is working on a dedicated headphone amp as part of their Geek line of products. It's going to be based on technology that they're implementing in the dedicate Da Vinci HPA. Below I've included the information taken directly from Light Harmonic's founder Larry Ho pertaining to the Da Vinci HPA.
Now we also know that LH Labs loves to get feedback from their backers and they take that feedback and try their best to work that feedback into their designs. At this point very little is known about the Geek HPA outside of LH Labs. So what would you like to see in a dedicate Geek HPA?
My first two wants are fairly simple. I would love to see tubes and I'd want it to be compatible with the LPS4.
Design headphone amp as a power amp!
Ultra high current driving capacity. Ultra high driving capability. The total driving power is 10,000mW single ended, and 20,000mW balanced. Three customizable gain settings for 10,000mW, 3,000mW and 500mW.
Dual Mono - Fully Balanced Design
The internal analog audio signal path of the Da Vinci HPA is fully balanced and dual mono.
Balanced analog input is kept intact, and single-ended input is converted to balanced at the input buffer. All single-ended outputs are derived from the balanced signal as well. The balanced design provides best common-mode noise rejection and improves signal quality. It also provides best channel separation by eliminating the common ground return path.
Cascoded JFET input buffer
Full discrete complementary JFET pair (LS170, LS74) from Linear System to provide lowest input current noise, cascoded with toshiba bipolar transistors to make the distortion to lowest. No DC capacitors in the whole audio signal path
Diamond buffer output circuit
This diamond buffer stage was specially designed for ultra high bandwidth and low noise. Also provide superb 10,000mW and 20,000mW output power in balanced output
Optional Tube Voltage Gain Stage
Da Vinci will use one of the best tube made in 1980s from Siemens. The legendary C3G connected in Triode mode to provide the best tube sound with minimum distortion. This circuit is also cascoded and load by constant current source for its best.
Let’s talk about components design…
This is what Da Vinci HPA use.
Quad Analog 48 Steps Shunt Full Balanced Volume Control
Nothing is spared. Vishay Z-foil “naked” input resistor with 48 quad paired +/- 0.1dB super matched resistor ladders with gold-silver alloy contacts. Also with shortest signal path design, you won’t find any better way for audio attenuation.
Silver Wired R-Core Power Transformer
R-Core transformer was known for its high bandwidth, lower stray capacitance and low noise. Da Vinci DAC use three of them. And Da Vinci Headphone amp will use TWO. One for left channel, one for right channel. With even higher specification, the wires goes inside are 99.99 silver wires. (Custom made for Light Harmonic)
Ultra-low noise complementary JFET from Linear System. These JFET was made by Toshiba and discontinued. A lot of legendary designs but not a lot available devices use these pair.
... more to come....
Ultra high current driving capacity. Ultra high driving capability. The total driving power is 10,000mW single ended, and 20,000mW balanced. Three customizable gain settings for 10,000mW, 3,000mW and 500mW.
Dual Mono - Fully Balanced Design
The internal analog audio signal path of the Da Vinci HPA is fully balanced and dual mono.
Balanced analog input is kept intact, and single-ended input is converted to balanced at the input buffer. All single-ended outputs are derived from the balanced signal as well. The balanced design provides best common-mode noise rejection and improves signal quality. It also provides best channel separation by eliminating the common ground return path.
Cascoded JFET input buffer
Full discrete complementary JFET pair (LS170, LS74) from Linear System to provide lowest input current noise, cascoded with toshiba bipolar transistors to make the distortion to lowest. No DC capacitors in the whole audio signal path
Diamond buffer output circuit
This diamond buffer stage was specially designed for ultra high bandwidth and low noise. Also provide superb 10,000mW and 20,000mW output power in balanced output
Optional Tube Voltage Gain Stage
Da Vinci will use one of the best tube made in 1980s from Siemens. The legendary C3G connected in Triode mode to provide the best tube sound with minimum distortion. This circuit is also cascoded and load by constant current source for its best.
Let’s talk about components design…
This is what Da Vinci HPA use.
Quad Analog 48 Steps Shunt Full Balanced Volume Control
Nothing is spared. Vishay Z-foil “naked” input resistor with 48 quad paired +/- 0.1dB super matched resistor ladders with gold-silver alloy contacts. Also with shortest signal path design, you won’t find any better way for audio attenuation.
Silver Wired R-Core Power Transformer
R-Core transformer was known for its high bandwidth, lower stray capacitance and low noise. Da Vinci DAC use three of them. And Da Vinci Headphone amp will use TWO. One for left channel, one for right channel. With even higher specification, the wires goes inside are 99.99 silver wires. (Custom made for Light Harmonic)
Ultra-low noise complementary JFET from Linear System. These JFET was made by Toshiba and discontinued. A lot of legendary designs but not a lot available devices use these pair.
... more to come....
Now we also know that LH Labs loves to get feedback from their backers and they take that feedback and try their best to work that feedback into their designs. At this point very little is known about the Geek HPA outside of LH Labs. So what would you like to see in a dedicate Geek HPA?
My first two wants are fairly simple. I would love to see tubes and I'd want it to be compatible with the LPS4.
