@davebull My friend is getting a pair of Ray Reserve tubes with the Aero dac. I'm curious to see how they compare.
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.
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@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. |
@nogaps I too have the D/S ll Pre which have the LinLai Global Es in them. A+ in my setup. My system is set up for analog, so I had to do some tube rolling. I forgot to mention that I just took ownership of a Innuos Pulsar streamer last Thursday. With the GE 12sn7s that came with my Aero the sound was a lil congested. I guess it was the house sound of the Pulsar. So the hole weekend I rolled my stash from the Global Es to my NOS tubes. Coming from a Wiim ultra that has REW, I thank God I found the right combo of tube to my liking. The K/R chrome tops are staying! Now the hunt for another set.... Happy listening Dan |
My DS2 pre was purchased used and it came with a pair of Linlai E-6SN7 and a pair of Psvane CV181 TMKII in it, Sounds wonderful. I haven't done any tube rolling in it yet as my system has been in multiple component upgrade mode for a while and there's no point in swapping tubes until it settles down into one, longer-term system. I also have the DS Kootenay amp..though haven't installed it yet as a second system is also "in-progress". I have a McCormack DNA-1 out for a rebuild now and a LFT-8c bass unit upgrade coming. I hope?? to try the DS2/Kootenay combo on my LFT-8c speakers..I see reports of people running them with moderate-powered tubes..we'll see. If not, then the SMc Ultra amp, when I get it back, will surely do the job. At some point..I'll give the Ray Reserve 6SN7s try. I am leaning, in general, toward new production tubes though. There's finally some decent options coming to market. NOS is such a rabbit hole and with some major sellers retiring it'll get more interesting yet..and more expensive...been there. |
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