Source: Corporate website, Last Accessed: 2019/08/21

The 205D is a directly heated triode designed by the Western Electric Co in the 1920s and is probably the oldest tube in current production! Taking inspiration from this remarkable tube and their highly rated HP8 headphone amplifier, Icon Audio designed a full tube, pure class A circuit, with high quality components, point-to-point hand-wired connections and a Bluetooth option.
Many audiophiles have discovered that a simple, well designed, tube amplifier can give greater purity and intimacy than more complex solid state designs the company says, and this is especially true of headphone amplifiers. The 1920s W.E. 205D is about as simple as a tube gets: as a small power output tube it has all the right qualities for headphone use, being very linear in operation. Like any tube amplifier, the output transformers are crucial to the final quality and Icon's custom designed and wound transformers play an important part in this.
The main chassis in complemented by an outboard power supply featuring a time honored tube rectifier and choke circuit. One ΕCC88 per channel is used as a driver. Output to the headphones is via a standard 6.35mm TRS connector and the user can select the matching between the output transformer and the headphone impedance (between 16 and 600 Ohms).
As in Icon's other designs, the HP205D is hard wired throughout (without using printed circuit boards) not only for better sound quality by using full size components and easier upgrades but for easy future service, the company stated. The circuit features high quality oversized resistors, SCR audio capacitors (which can be upgraded), a Blue Alps potentiometer, ceramic tube holders, silver PTFE audio cabling and gold plated input/output connectors.
The HP205D may be used as a stand-alone unit or as part of a Hi-Fi system, since it offers a loop-through facility. The optional Bluetooth receiver make the HP 205D very versatile to use.

For more information: https://iconaudio.com/

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