Thanks, Torq!
Glad to be here!
You are correct about the signal path.
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Yes. Normal push-pull behavior.
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Yes. The reason for using input transformers is that we wanted galvanic insulation of audio ground. This is a full blown speaker-kind of amp that is speacialized for our purpose, so it’s not a champ in low-noise department. We need all the help we can get to keep the noise floor low, so we’ve had to make our audio ground completely insensitive to user’s system ground, with possible ground loops, etc.
And then…
Using conventional headphones via an adapter is definitely possible, but we can’t guarantee the perception of the noise floor and what SPL you will get. It depends on headphones, but this is what we have:
We have 20W of output on VM-1a at our load of 0.4 Ohms. Way more power than needed, so it’s incredibly powerful with our headphones, plenty of reserve for the most demanding peaks.
However, that is 2.8Vrms. Is that enough or not to whom, I don’t know.
It does not have the attenuation circuit.
In any case, nothing will happen to the amp itself, as it has a fixed ballast load inside that always loads the output transformer with a safe load that doesn’t make it “open secondary”.
So, trials are definitely possible, but this type of use was not on our radar. The intended purpose of this is to offer a system, in combination with SR1 headphones, that exceeds the performance of the most famous amp-headphones specialized combos in existence, except we’re not selling it exclusively as a combo.
I hope this answers your questions. If you have more, please ask!
Cheers,
Alex from RAAL-requisite