A number of important elements of the circuit design merit special attention:

Field Effect Transistors (FETs). More important than the total amount of distortion of an audio circuit is the character of the distortion. Odd-order harmonic distortion products, being musically unrelated to the fundamental tone, sound strident and irritating, whereas even-order distortion products are part of the natural musical overtones. FETs have been selected for the active devices in the Premier 18LS because, like tubes and unlike bi-polar transistors, they produce almost no odd-order harmonic distortion.

Zero Feedback. Negative feedback is an engineering technique used to reduce measured distortion. While feedback does achieve this goal, it also introduces aberrations in the transient response characteristics of the circuit. The Premier 18LS uses conrad-johnson's unique auto-linear gain block, which achieves low distortion with zero loop feedback by exploiting the symmetrical distortion properties of n and p channel fets.

Solid Power Supplies. Power supply circuits present a parallel signal path to the audio circuits. Ideally this signal path provides ac signals with a zero impedance path to ground. Any deviation from this ideal is reflected in the reproduced audio signal. Thus the power supplies are as important to audio performance as the audio circuits and must be accorded equal attention in design. The power supplies for the Premier 18LS feature discrete dc regulators that have been carefully designed for minimum impedance, even at the highest audio frequencies, to prevent the power supplies from degrading music reproduction.

Quality Parts. As with all Premier components, the Premier 18LS is constructed from the highest quality, carefully selected parts for unrivaled sonic performance and reliability. Only precision metal foil resistors and polypropylene and polystyrene capacitors are utilized in the audio circuitry. The audio circuits and their related power supplies utilize precision low inductance laser-trimmed metal foil resistors. To avoid the compromised performance of a potentiometer, these same resistors are used in the level control, where level is set by to selecting combinations among an array of these resistors. Loudness and balance can be adjusted precisely in 100 steps of approximately .7dB per step. Even the precision-machined input/output connectors have been carefully selected for optimal sonic performance.