“So, did they achieve their goal to produce an amplifier with an extremely flat frequency response, with incredible impact, able to drive a wide range of headphones, as I never used more than half volume, it has enough go to run most any headphone, so I would say, ‘Yes, absolutely’.”
Gary Alan Barker, Headphone.Guru
The devilish Perfidus is a powerful solid-state class-A headphone amp that will literally blow you away. Even though we tamed the beast, this powerful desktop amp still drives plenty of power and delivers a punchy flat frequency response ranging from 4 Hz-40 kHz. Handcrafted in a sophisticated aluminum chassis, this sleek looking amp works well with all headphones – even orthodynamic – and picks out an immense amount of detail in reproduction.
Actually, we can confidently say the Perfidus takes music to another level. Boasting a great resolution, responsive speed and high dynamics, this boutique amplifier milks the warm tones yet has the bite to emphasize the lower midrange with clean distinction. As a result, the Perfidus produces such a rich sound, you will feel like rock bands and classical orchestras are playing live in your living room.
Technical Specifications
- Headphone impedance: 8-600 ohm
- Frequency response: 4 Hz-40 kHz, -1dB
- THD (1 kHz): 0.007 %
- IMD: 0.077 %
- Power consumption: 15 W
- Power supply input voltage: 230 V/50 Hz or 115 V/60 Hz
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 110 mm x 64 mm x 285 mm
- Weight: 1480 g
- Character: Bright and quick
The Story
We called this unit In-Cubus in the first stages. It was meant to be in a cube-like chassis: power supply at the top and amplifier circuit at the bottom. But it didn’t work out as expected. No matter what we tried with the electro-magnetic isolation, the interference from the power supply was too strong. So on to Plan B: put it in the Bacillus’ chassis, and make it slightly longer.
The switch worked a treat and the amplifier turned out to be very precise and uncompromising towards bad recordings. Now you can hear the minutest details in the recording. Because it uncovers the mistakes as well, Perfidus seemed a fitting name, and was still contextually connected with the original name, Incubus.
The Perfidus was the most complicated project we have completed because, like Bacillus, we wanted to put it in as small a chassis as possible. The adjustments were painstaking, but the results are worth it – and we think you will agree.
The elongated casing sports a 7mm aluminum front panel featuring a solid aluminum volume knob, headphone jack and an LED light whilst in the rear are a pair of solid RCA connectors and the power switch. The rear aluminum panel is 2mm thick and the amp stands on sturdy rubber feet.
