Audio Note M8 Line - Manual (Page 6)

Congratulations on your purchase of the Audio Note (UK) M8 Line Pre Amplifier.
It has been specifically engineered for sonic performance rather than technical
specification, and fulfills all Audio Note (UK) Level 5 criteria: -
Pure Class A operation
Zero negative feedback
Single Ended circuit topology
Valve rectification
Materials and component quality
It is well known that the accurate reproduction of music, not just sound, requires the
purity of the incoming signal to be preserved. It is therefore not difficult to conclude
that, in order to achieve this goal and to retain the musicality of the original
performance, the complexity of the circuitry itself must be kept to a minimum.
In response to this, the M8 Line Pre Amplifier uses a single-ended, zero feedback
circuit topology. This is simply the most linear design possible, demanding pure
Class A valve operation and removing the need for a phase splitter, which introduces
unnecessary crossover distortion.
In contrast to the majority of the audio industry, we design our circuits with the aim of
minimising non-harmonic and time base anomalies, rather than producing
vanishingly small harmonic or low intermodulation distortion measurements. These
non-harmonic amplitude and time base distortions have a highly perceptible and
adverse affect on the signal waveform, and it is far more important to address these
factors than participate in the increasingly irrelevant numbers game that chases
‘perfect measured response’.
As a result, the M8 Line was designed for maximum linearity and minimum transient
distortion, and avoids the need for detrimental ‘corrective’ measures, such as
inherently error-prone feedback loops.
The M8 Line Pre Amplifier features an ECC82 and 7044 line stage, and uses a 6X5
valve rectified power supply based on the M10’s Galahad PSU. Audio Note (UK)
Silver wiring, tantalum resistors, SILMIC filter capacitors and Audio Note (UK) silver
foil signal capacitors are used throughout the circuit, along with in-house designed
and manufactured, custom Audio Note (UK) output transformers, which feature a HiB
50% nickel c-core, silver primary and a silver secondary. The M8 also has a correctly
designed and implemented balanced output circuit.
Rather than using separate controls for volume and balance, the M8 Line
preamplifier is equipped with a dedicated Audio Note (UK) stepped attenuator for
each channel. This not only brings the enormous improvements in sound quality
expected from the now legendary Audio Note (UK) stepped attenuators, but also
provides a level of channel balance accuracy that is impossible to achieve with
conventional volume and balance potentiometers.
M8 LINE PRE AMPLIFIER