Xenos 3 User Manual - 1. Welcome
X3-User-Guide-v2-5-web.5
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1. Welcome
Congratulations on your purchase of the Xenos 3 Headphone Amplifier (X3HA) and
welcome to a world of astounding audio clarity. This professional amplifier will provide you
with superb High-Fidelity sound for many hours of listening pleasure. You will be able to
listen to your favourite tracks with incredible clarity and dimension that you never thought
existed. It will remarkably enhance the sound quality produced by almost any device that
has a headphone output and provide you with the very best sound your headphones can
deliver.
Take time to read through this user guide as it will provide you with valuable information
to help you ensure that you get the very best performance from your X3HA. Before you
call in for technical support, read through and follow the recommendations in chapter 6 of
this user guide.
Thank you for choosing Xenos Audio Systems
and ATP Systems.
Introduction
Connecting to Headphone Outputs
Most CD players, MP3 players, personal computers, medium to high end stereo receivers
and other audio sources with headphone outputs often make use of single-chip , single-
ended output headphone amplifier devices. These devices may without load produce
fairly reasonable low-distortion sound but often lack adequate power to effectively drive
headphones.
This results in low-volume, inferior quality (high distortion) reproduction of the audio signal
by headphone sets. Bass signals sound flat and or higher frequencies sound distorted
when listening to audio tracks from these inferior single-chip headphone amplifiers. This
can be observed when you turn up the volume to your headphones and is evidenced by
increased distortion of the audio signal.
The X3HA Headphone Amplifier provides higher headphone drive levels and enhances
audio quality thereby overcoming the weaknesses inherent in lower quality headphone
amplifiers.
As mentioned above, headphone amplifiers in CD players, MP3 players, personal
computers and stereo receivers, in most cases, can reproduce audio signals with very
little distortion as long as there is little to no load connected to their output.
The X3HA takes advantage of this by firstly presenting a negligible load to the output of
these headphone amplifiers. The X3HA then uses it s own high quality low-noise pre-
amplifier stage that drives the bipolar transistor output stages. The X3HA employs the
same amplifier design as that used in high end speaker amplifiers. A DC-DC converter is
used to convert the battery voltage to a full dual-rail supply as found in high end stereo
amplifiers.
Connecting to Line Outputs
The X3HA can also be connected to the line output of audio playback devices. In most
cases the line output provides a higher quality low distortion audio signal but is insufficient
for driving headphones. The X3HA can amplify the line output signal to a level suitable for
driving headphones. This allows you to take advantage of the superior quality of line
output audio.