Review on Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC

@teajay and others,

This LTA Aero sounds interesting to me, but I have a couple of questions...

I'm a dye in the wool vinyl guy and have a very nice turntable/arm/cartridge/phonostage, etc. that provides very enjoyable listening sessions.

1)  I'm curious for those of you who also enjoy quality vinyl playback, how does this LTA Aero compare sound wise?

2) Currently, I would have to use an old Rotel 955AX CD Player as a transport into the LTA Aero via coax output.  How well would this work with the Aero?  Is the Rotel a good enough transport to get the sonic goods out of the Aero or would I have to spend big dollars on a better transport?

I appreciate hearing anyone's thoughts on this.

Thank you and best wishes to you all!

Don

Hey Don,

Remember the Aero uses a chip nicknamed the "analog" DAC. Two of my closet friends who are die hard analog listeners, with excellent vinyl rigs, love the LTA Aero because it has an ease, overall warmth, and relaxation often associated with vinyl. 

Yes, I'm sure the Rotel being used as a transport should be up to the task.

Teajay

@teajay

Thank you for your quick reply! That makes me very happy to hear that you and your friends feel it is a very analog sounding type dac. I was hoping to be able to find something that I could enjoy listening too without breaking the bank.

Vinyl will still be my primary listening source as I have 1000’s of truly mint records that I have collected over the last few decades that simply sound sublime. However, there I am discovering that there is a lot of great music being produced by modern musicians that I cannot get on vinyl and so I want to have digital source that will produce the beautiful tone and harmonic structure of real live music without sounding hard or strident or 2-dimensional.

I’m also happy that you feel that my old vintage Rotel 955ax will work well for a transport.

I will need to buy a coax cable to go from the transport to the Aero’s input. Any recommendations for a great sounding cable for a few hundred to a $1000 whether new or used.

For context, my current cables are Acoustic Zen Absolute Coppers for all interconnects and AZ Satori Shotguns for my speaker cables.

Oh, also... do you happen to know how tall the unit is with the tubes installed?

Thank you for your help and guidance!

Don

@no_regrets 

I'm of a different mindset in regard to the Rotel being utilized as a transport.

Would an excellent tonearm-cartridge combo performance be affected by an average turntable?

I feel significant gains will materialize with a transport approaching the Aero level.

@lpretiring 

I appreciate your comment. It nice to get different perspectives and opinions!

Which transports would you recommend?

Best wishes,

Don