Int'l.Owner's Reference Manual GCHA Headphone Amplifier

Owner’s Reference GCHA Headphone Amplifi er
4826 Sterling Drive, Boulder, CO 80301
PH: 720.406.8946 [e-mail] www.psaudio.com
Introduction iv
®
©2005 PS Audio International Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Thank you for your purchase of the PS Audio GCHA Headphone Amplifi er.
The GCHA is a high-end headphone amplifi er designed for audiophile listening. It is based on PS
Audio’s unique Gain Cell Technology.
The GCHA contains a Gain Cell’s preamplifi er stage and a Class A biased output stage. The GCHA can
accept audio signals from any analog source or digital audio from your USB-compliant computer.
A unique feature of the GCHA is the volume control itself: which does not attenuate the audio signal
in the tradional manner, rather, the level of the GCHA is adjusted by controling the gain of amplifi ers
inside the GCHA.
In a traditional headphone amplifi er, an audio signal is presented to the amplifi er at full signal level.
The headphone amplifi er then attenuates, or reduces, that input signal to reach the desired listening
level with headphones. While this conventional method of controlling the volume is an acceptable
practice, it does have drawbacks: the attenuators cause degradation of the audio signal. The GCHA
solves this problem by use of the PS Gain Cell technology. Gain Cells have adjustable gain and need
no attenuation of the input signal to achieve desired listening levels. Instead, the front panel volume
control is a gain adjustment, rather than an attenuator. The removal of any attenuators in the signal
path has a sonic advantage over conventional technologies.
You should expect unrivaled sonic qualities, with low noise, high performance audio being delivered
to your headphones.
What will it do?
What you can
expect
No attenuators
inside