The Pass Labs HPA-1c is a refined evolution of the award-winning HPA-1 headphone amplifier, preserving the original discrete Class A circuit while introducing meaningful upgrades to its power supply and grounding topology. These revisions yield a lower noise floor, tighter regulation, and a quieter background that reveals greater low-level detail and clarity, particularly with high-sensitivity headphones where the roughly 10 dB improvement in overall noise performance is most audible.
Beyond its primary role as a headphone amplifier, the HPA-1c functions as a high-performance line-level preamplifier with a robust output stage capable of driving typical power amplifier loads. The headphone output delivers up to 2 watts into 32 ohms with an output impedance below 2 ohms, providing ample authority for most dynamic and planar magnetic designs, while the preamplifier section maintains very low output impedance for seamless integration into a reference speaker system.
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