Audio Note M8 Line Signature - Manual (Page 6)

Congratulations on your purchase of the Audio Note (UK) M8 Line Signature
premplifier. It is without doubt or question, one of the finest Line Level preamplifiers
in production today and is a full Audio Note (UK) Level 5 product.
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 Signature preamplifier 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 Signature was designed for maximum linearity and minimum
transient distortion, and avoids the need for detrimental ‘corrective’ measures, such
as inherently error-prone feedback loops.
Rather than using separate controls for volume and balance, the M8 Line Signature
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.
The M8 Line Signature features a pair of correctly engineered balanced / XLR inputs
for sources with suitable balanced outputs. Each input is connected directly to an in-
house custom designed and produced, silver wired input transformer, which offers
the finest possible input for your XLR Line level source outputs.
Each channel is powered by an independent power supply, housed in an external
chassis. As one would expect, the output transformers for the M8 Line Signature are
some of the finest possible examples we can produce. Each transformer is fully silver
wound, and feature our own 55% nickel iron C-Cores.
M8 LINE SIGNATURE PRE AMPLIFIER