LTA Aero vs Merason Reuss vs Mojo Audio Mystique Y?
Hi everyone, I just recently made an account after reading through @mitch2 ’s incredible Six Dac Comparison thread. I’m considering DAC upgrades from my Merason Frerot with Pow1 power supply, and the three finalists so far are the LTA Aero (I’d probably use the Ray Reserve tubes), Merason Reuss, and Mojo Audio Mystique Y (with either AM or NC chokes). Has anyone compared any of these three? I’m looking to retain the natural, "analog" liquidity of the Merason while improving upon microdynamics, depth, and imaging specificity.
Mitch had both the Aero and Mystique Y in-house, albeit not at the same time, so that gives me some sense of how they might compare using Aero’s stock tubes. Ideally I’d prefer to stay away from tubes but the Aero is pretty compelling. The only downside with the Mojo is that it’s optimized for its single-ended outputs and I’d want to use the balanced outputs for the best sonic performance from my amp. The Reuss would be a natural upgrade from my Frerot, but I’m not sure exactly how it compares to the more widely reviewed DAC1 MkII, and I also feel the AD1865 chip used in the LTA and Mojo is more well-regarded than the Burr Brown in the Merasons.
I’d appreciate any thoughts about how these three might compare for what I’m after. I’m very drawn to modern implementations of older DAC chips (specifically the AD1865, AD1862, Burr Brown PCM63, and other very well-regarded chips), so please let me know if there are any other DACs around the same price that I should be considering. This is for my desktop headphone system, so form factor is also important and the three DACs in the title are about as large as I’d like to go.
It would be great if I could happily settle on some new production tubes to avoid the whole NOS tube rabbit hole. @sls883 I'll be interested to know what your friend thinks of the new Tung-Sols in his Aero! Also, the little experience I do have buying NOS tubes was through Brent Jessee on audiotubes. With his retirement, where are good places in the US to order matched pairs of NOS tubes from aside from eBay? |
Don Sachs is a long term advocate of the 6SN7 tubes and designed his DS2 preamp around them. You can do some searching, but he's landed on Ray Reserve new production 6SN7 tubes as the best he's heard..and he's heard quite a few of the very best. This is is a Nov 2024 audiocircle Spatial Audio discussion(Ray tubes 6SN7)..Don is the thread author |
@davebull My friend is getting a pair of Ray Reserve tubes with the Aero dac. I'm curious to see how they compare. |
@sls883 That's a comparison I'd be very interested in. Please report back or have your friend report back after he's formed opinions on both |
The LTA Aero has been in my system for 6 weeks now. I started with the GE 12SN7 and those were a bit sterile sounding. Moving to the Ray Reserve 6SN7 was much better. I have a collection of NOS 6 and 12SN7's and I will say that the Aero does respond to tube rolling. Now I have the Sylvania "Bad Boy" 12SN7s and it sounds great. I've tried NOS Tung Sol "mouse ears", also great sounding, but different from the Sylvania tubes. I didn't care so much for the 1960's orange print RCA tubes. My favorite tube so far is the Brimar CV1988. These add a nice touch of warmth to the sound. I have not tried my Ken Rad 6SN7s yet. The other thing I learned about the Aero is that it's sensitive to the signal it's being fed. I still play CDs and at first I used an SMSL PL200T transport, with a SBooster power supply. I didn't think a more expensive transport would make a difference until I tried a TEAC 701T. When I went back and forth between the transports the SMSL had a bit of glare to the sound. |
