Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC

I heard the Aero in two different rooms at CAF. Pure magic says I, who is luke warm at best to digital sound reproduction. Heard it twice in the Daedalus room which is a very familiar sound for me—excepting the new LTA monos which were new to my ears. Also in Clayton’s room, also sounding very analogue in terms of visceral engagement. Very promising debut!

The price is sane, which is nice.

This is a very interesting entry into the DAC market. I have heard the Linear Tube Audio ZOTL Ultralinear+ amplifier and there's a clarity without harshness to that amp which is what I'd want in a DAC. I recently ditched my MHDT Orchid because I wanted more clarity from the source (I have tubes further down the chain), so I'm a bit reluctant to have tubes back in the source but if LTA is achieving the same clarity with this DAC as with their amps, then it might be a winner.

A friend who is an expert repair person and an audio equipment designer made an interesting comment about the details offered so far: "What they don't say makes me notice, there is no mention of how they are handling the USB input, only that it has one. The I/V converter with no resistors seems all but impossible to me. It says discreet, that's great but one cannot build a discreet transistor or tube circuit without them. I suspect they mean not using a resistor directly for I/V conversion, but how it's written sits poorly with me. It may sound great, I cannot say. Certainly it can't play high bit rate music, but most stuff is 16bit."
I can't pretend to understand the technical details of his question, but the fact he has them makes me curious.

Hilde45- what did you move on to from the Orchid? I use a modified Orchid.