Class A Technology

Let’s face it — Class A is a controversial technology in a sustainable world. For years, Class A was considered the best option because it delivers the lowest audio distortion. But this benefit comes at the expense of wasted energy. Traditional Class A amps produce a lot of heat, even when no music is playing. These amps continuously waste power and the extra heat is not good for the environment. Centrance wanted to improve on this and invented an alternative. We call it Smart Class A™

Smart Class A™ is an adaptive amplifier technology that delivers optimal amount of clean power to your headphones. Sensitive headphones require less energy and less heat. What you do is turn a knob to indicate your headphones’ sensitivity. Amp mini will self-adjust to your headphones, saving power whenever possible. With sensitive headphones the amp will actually run cooler, while still delivering stellar performance. This is not possible with traditional Class A designs, which waste a lot of energy no matter what headphones you use.

Smart Class A puts you in control of the amplifier’s power consumption, by letting you correctly identify your headphones. The amp does the rest, as it configures itself for lowest environmental impact. This is a real breakthrough in sound quality and energy savings. Enjoy your music even more, knowing you are helping to make the world a cooler place!

A Note of Caution

Caution: Please be careful with Balanced Armature, In-Ear and Dynamic headphones. They are very sensitive and could get very loud with AMPmini! Lower the volume to protect your ears!

The HP Sensitivity control is similar to a gain range knob. It works in tandem with the volume control, but it does more under the hood. The end result of turning HP Sensitivity dial is louder or softer audio, but it comes from re-configuring the power delivery infrastructure for optimal energy use.

Think of it this way: The volume dial deals with audio volume. The HP sensitivity dial deals with energy consumption. It changes the amount of power delivered to the Class A stage to match the needs of your headphones and optimize heat dissipation. It’s like a gearbox on a race car. And the Volume knob is like a gas pedal. Both contribute to how fast the car is going, but they do it differently.

Headphones’ sensitivity depends on the transducer type and typically ranges from 115 dB (efficient) to 85 dB (inefficient). This data is available on the manufacturer’s website or in the user manual for your headphones.

Using the correct sensitivity value for your headphones, adjust Amp mini’s HP Sensitivity dial to match. That calibrates it for optimal performance. Amp mini will then deliver correct amount of energy to the headphone jack and manage the amount of generated heat. Traditional Class A amplifiers don’t care about the headphones used and always run at maximum power. Amp mini’s Smart Class A technology can adjust to your headphones in order to lower the heat and save energy.

A note of caution (again, because this is important). With the total amount of 8W of available power, you need to exercise care in using Amp mini with sensitive headphones, and especially with in-ear-monitor headphones (IEMs). If Sensitivity is set improperly, it can cause very high output levels, which are bad for your hearing. High output levels can also damage some IEMs.

Setting the HP Sensitivity dial to 115 dB will result in the lowest power. That’s the safest setting and a good place to start. That’s also why the HP Sensitivity knob appears to have the numbers going “backwards” — to match the volume knob. As you turn the dial clockwise, power goes up, on both dials.

Always start the amp with the Volume knob completely down (set to MIN) and then gradually turn it up until sound is heard. Never turn the amp ON at maximum volume AND low sensitivity, such as 85 dB. At those settings Amp mini will deliver highest amounts of power, which is very dangerous to your headphones and to your hearing. Amp mini was designed for using planar headphones, which are notoriously hard-to-drive and require extra power. Use extreme caution when using IEMs with Amp mini. Think of it as a powerful race car. It can rip things apart of not used correctly.

Please be careful and ask us for help if you have any questions about product operation.

Tube Tone Control

Amp mini features a continuous tube saturation dial, which lets you choose the amount of pleasing tube tone to taste – from clinical presentation to a nice, satisfying growl.