Aero DAC by Linear Tube Audio - experience

I installed my Aero around November of last year. I was running on the BlueSound Vault TI built in DAC, so instant upgrade right out of the box. I worked with the guys at LTA and they recommended I go with the NOS Tung-Sol JAN 12SN7GT - Round Black Plate, Oval Mica tubes. Sent them to me with the stock NOS GE 12SN7's to compare the two. I put them in and never even tried the stock tubes. It was, well, exactly what I was looking for. Here's a review they asked me to read on using different tubes in the unit: https://twitteringmachines.com/review-linear-tube-audio-aero-dac-part-2-tube-rolling/

what was cool was they sent me the pair of tubes without charging me to try out. I paid them after 3 days of listening to them...Nice company.

+1 @katzenjammer27 The folks i have dealt with at LTA are just top notch in terms of knowledge and customer serivce.  Delightful company to work with indeed!

(and aren’t those JAN Tung-SoL 12 volt round plates are awesome tubes indeed! It is such a nice feature of the Aero that you can use 12SN7s or 6SN7s equally.)

@rivinyl , I am not familiar with the Audio Note Dac 2.1’s sound, but I would be surprised if one found the Aero lean sounding (even with the stock tubes, which are indeed a bit more matter of fact/slightly drier sounding than various NOS tubes I’ve tried out).

You can get a better idea of some listening data points from @mitch2 ’s reporting on here (linked above) and  Michael Lavorgna’s reports of result of tube rolling with the Aero, also referred to above by @katzenjammer27 .  IIRC, Mitch liked the Aero but preferred several other non-tube DACS over it —and then moved on to the (differently) tubed, legendary Aries Cerat Helene — but never described the Aero’s sound as lean.

Given the Aero’s price and LTA’s try it at home policy, I don’t have any hesitation in recommending that you test out in your space &system and see what you think.

Oh, i should add that LTA says that they think the DAC plays equally well with SPDIF/coax as it does with USB input. And from my 2 systems (one USB and one COAX), I do not disagree.  I think it depends on your streamer as to which will sound better in your system. That flexibility is a pretty nice feature, IMHO.

Add in,

I've not seen a used Aero up for sale, that also might say something...

this aero dac was listed on the other site for almost two months, reduced price a couple of times before it sold... it was local to me, i inquired and was going to try it but my hands were full with several lampizators i was sorting through, then it finally sold 

so i didn’t have a chance to try this lta dac personally but i know their gear and house sound quite well as i have had their linestage as well as currently having a mono pair of their zotl40 amps 

i would describe lta’s sonic ethos as 'bringing the best vacuum tube-oriented imaging prowess with a high order solid state level of clarity and transparency' -- their gear is far from classically tubey sounding in terms of creamy midrange and relaxed treble, in fact it can sound a little lean (somewhat yin tendency) in the mids and midbass with quite extended, airy open treble

furthermore, i had a audio note kits dac 4.1 couple years back, and i would venture to say that the audio note sound IS in fact more overtly tubey, with a noticeable warmth and richness through the range, so where the lta and an dacs lay on the sonic spectrum is rather different