Based on lancelock’s mention of LTA’s Black Friday sale together with our years of off-forum communications (we both have the JansZen ESL speakers) I pulled the trigger ahead of schedule and bought my own ZOTL40. Like Lance, I also had a well reviewed transformer based tube amp driving my JansZen’s and was immediately impressed by the LTA amp. That other amp is now sold. No looking back and it was a really good amp.
Driving an amp with transformers must be like run training with a parachute. Without the transformers my JansZens sprang into a whole new happy place. Much more weight to the sound, dynamics out the wazoo, and full frequency range is toally released. Basically more of everything.
I would like to try the LTA Micro ZOTL as a preamp, but it is at it’s heart, a headphone amp and doesn’t have balance controls or extra outputs for a sub. The latest version only now offers a remote as an option. I’ll stick with my Cary SLP-98P preamp for now as it also has a phono stage and I’m running with good NOS tubes.
If LTA comes out with a more full function preamp down the road I would be a fool to not try it. I’m sure it would best my Cary with the ZOTL approach, but I’d have to find a new phono preamp as well. I need to stand pat for now and simply enjoy the virtues of this amazing amp. I have no doubt the ZOTL40 or ZOTL10 (efficient speakers) would allow any speaker it touches to reach its potential. The JansZen ESLs reveal all and they are swinging.
Oh, I almost forgot. Those 40 watts feel like a whole lot more. I have the volume on the amp maybe 1/3 of the way and my preamp never goes above half, but I do listen at lower levels than many. My prior "40 watt" amp got into clipping at party levels. The JansZens are rated at 87dB.