Excellent thank you Teajay. With a 14 day free trial what have a got to lose😁
Review on Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC
Hey Gon members,
I just submitted to Stereo Times my review on the new ,and the first, DAC that Linear Tube Audio has just released. For right now I would strongly suggest anyone in the market for a stand alone DAC, regardless of price, consider the Aero. Its build quality, R2R chip set, power supply, internal part selection and the tube based ZOTL analog conversion section leads to one of the most musical and analog type presentations I have heard in the last ten years. Not inexpensive at $3,950, but competes with my reference which sells for $10,000 more. You get a 14 day home . trial. So far no one has returned the Aero after hearing in their system. I go into many details about the Aero in my review, but wanted to give a heads-up for anyone considering a DAC purchase. I believe the Aero is a break through product based on price vs. performance. I'll let you know when the review goes up. Hopefully in the next ten days.
Terajay (Terry London)
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- 124 posts total
Amazing! What is this like a 27 year old DAC?
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Hey jetter, Yes, the Pass Labs DAC-1 is about that old. Mine was re-capped by Pass Labs and is in pristine condition. The only reason that Pass Labs stopped manufacturing the DAC-1 was the unavailability of the great Burr-Brown PCM-(K)63 chips. Pass Labs policy is if they can't have parts to repair a certain model in the future they stop manufacturing it. The DAC-1 uses four of these chips in a fully balanced configuration. Then add Nelson's brilliance with power supplies and you get a great sounding DAC. Teajay |
After reading about how you found the DAC's performance to be even better with NOS 6SN7 tubes, I thought I would look around and maybe purchase a set prior to receiving the DAC, so I could maximize its performance during my 14-day trial period. Holy crap, I had no idea of where prices have gone on 6SN7 tubes! It seems $400 to over $1K for a pair is not unusual. Therefore, leaving the DAC powered up for best sound, as supported by LTA, would be a much more expensive proposition if using NOS tubes. Can you elaborate on the specific sonic attributes, as well as the relative degree of improvement - i.e., subtle to significant, that you heard when using NOS 6SN7 tubes? Do you believe 6SN7s in general may sound better than 12SN7s in this DAC? Thanks for any additional thoughts you can share regarding the impact of the tubes used. |
Hey mitch2, Of all the 6SN7s I have in my collection the TungSol black glass/round plates have always been my favorites for three reasons: 1) The air and spatiality they create is really very remarkable. 2) The beauty of timbres/colors is very pristine and very close to what I hear in live music. 3) There is an ease/effortlessness that it produces which I experience as the music is just oozing and flowing into my listening space. With all that, when I used the TungSols in the Aero it did not produce a qualitative shift (what I believe you would call significant) but a subtle addition of the traits I described above. The DAC sounds absolutely terrific with the GE NOS 12SN7s that it shipped with. Using the NOS TungSol black glass/oval plates 6SN7's is like "the icing on cake". So, if you go through with your purchase of the Aero and love it,, which I think you will, you could treat yourself later with a pair of 6SN7s. Finally, you are correct they have become scarcer and more expensive, but you can still score them for relatively reasonable prices. If you get a good pair they tend to be very long lived. The way the LTA Aero uses its tubes they should last a very long time, indeed. Teajay |
- 124 posts total