Violectric HPA V340 headphone amplifier: balanced, low noise, powerful, with preamp function
The German brand Violectric has released the powerful balanced headphone amplifier HP V340. In addition to the main function, the novelty can also be used as a pre-amplifier. The HPA V340 combines circuitry solutions from the successful Lake People (the company that owns Violectric), Violectric itself, and Niimbus. But the main donor of solutions for the HPA V340 can still be considered the Violectric HPA V550 Pro model.
Here, the same ideology of minimum gain was applied, which made it possible to seriously reduce the intrinsic noise of the circuit. Due to the high supply voltage of 50 V, the model produces a high output voltage. In turn, this allows you to work even with high-impedance professional series headphones.
The HPA V340 is even more versatile with a large headroom for power output. In particular, the manufacturer recommended a novelty for magnetostatic headphones. The low output impedance of the amplifier provided the HPA V340 with a high damping factor – another parameter that allowed the manufacturer to recommend the new product for working with the most complex and source-demanding models.
In addition to two 6.3 mm stereo jacks, the Violectric HPA V340 is equipped with a balanced 4-pin XLR connector. The two unbalanced RCA inputs are complemented by the same line output, repeated in balanced XLR, so the HPA V340 is ready to drive an active speaker or power amplifier.
On the front panel, similar to the older HPA V550 Pro, there is a volume control, an input selector and a switch for the headphone amplifier / preamplifier operating mode. The device status is indicated by signal LEDs.
In Europe, the Violectric HPA V340 headphone amplifier will cost 1,800 euros.