Musical Fidelity X-Can V8P Headphone Amp

[jdandy]

I just purchased a Musical Fidelity X-Can V8P headphone amplifier. It is in mint condition, bought from the original owner. I am excited to see how it sounds compared to my solid state Class A HeadAmp Gilmore Lite headphone amplifier.

The X-Can V8P is also a Class A dual mono headphone amp that uses a hybrid circuit, with a pair of ECC88 twin-triode tubes to drive a solid-state output stage. The V8P supports two pairs of headphones and also features a USB input and Burr-Brown DAC. The power supply is external, and feeds the V8P through a 3 pin DIN plug.

The "P" in the V8P model number means this headphone amplifier can also be used as a tube preamplifier through the additional set of variable line outputs on the rear. I will not be using the preamp feature, although you never know.

The USB input to the DAC is only 16Bit/44.1 as I understand it, but I am good with that. The X-Can V8P will sit on the desk in my office, and this will give me the opportunity to experiment with digital downloads, which up until now I have not done. The V8P will primarily be used as my headphone amp in the office.

Musical Fidelity designs their products in England, and they are manufactured in Taiwan to their exacting standards. From all that I have read, the X-Can V8P is a high quality product with a big base of very satisfied users, so I am expecting great performance. I may do some tube rolling with the headphone amp, maybe slip a pair of Genalex Gold Lion ECC88 / 6922 tubes into it. The specidications are impressive:

Power 1.3 Watts per channel into 32 Ohms
Output devices 2 per channel
Output impedance 2 Ohms
Line output: THD + N > 0.008% typical 20Hz to 20 kHz
Signal / noise ratio > 100dB unweighted, > 109dB ‘A’ weighted
Input impedance 22 k Ohms
Frequency response 20Hz to 70 kHz, +0, -1dB

Now that I am enjoying my Sennheiser HD600's with the Stefen AudioArt Equinox cable, I am ready to see what a tube headphone amp can do. I should have the Musical Fidelity X-Can V8P next Wednesday.