The Ebony A1 Tube Preamp is a sleek-looking discrete Class A preamp designed to heighten your audio experience. It uses Discrete Class A circuitry and has an optional tube stage with variable drive putting you in control of how creamy or how cool your unit sounds.
Hand assembled in England to the highest standards, the Ebony uses stylish, quality chrome knobs together with a high-gloss black finish to make the exterior look just as smooth as the circuits sound. The Ebony Series have all the features you come to expect with TL Audio, including balanced I/O, multi input options, analogue VU metering and intuitive, precise controls. All units are also compatible with the TL Audio DO-2 digital SPDIF interface for easy digital connectivity with high quality conversion. A combination of supreme quality, unrivalled sound, and stylish aesthetics: This range offers superior analog processing to accompany a digital world.
Why Class-A?
Class A circuits are designed with constant current flowing through all of the transistors, which is sufficient to drive the peak output required from each block of the circuit. This ensures that every transistor is kept at its optimum operating point, minimizing nonlinearities due to changes in current and internal thermal effects, and eliminating the objectionable "cross-over" distortion typical of class AB circuits.
Due to the higher steady state (or "quiescent") currents used, the power dissipation of class A circuits is substantially higher than can generally be handled by integrated circuits. It is also possible to design discrete transistor circuits to operate at higher voltage rails than are available for audio integrated circuits, adding the benefit of greater headroom and improved dynamic range. For these reasons, there are no integrated circuits in the audio paths of the Ebony Series.
The outstanding audio quality is reflected in the technical specification of the units, with particularly low noise and distortion, and wide frequency response.
