I'm rereading your initial impressions of the Pacific as I had my first real demo of a tube DAC (LTA Aero) recently. I compared it against my Ferrum Erco Gen 2 which uses an output stage similar to the Ferrum Wandla and an upsampling filter developed by HQPlayer. The Aero is non-oversampling...

No. I imported a Japanese ZX707 and have performed many upgrades, including a full Android OS upgrade, and no cap has been introduced.

It drives the MDR-Z1R and ATH-AWAS fine, though that will depend on how loudly you want to listen. I've also listened to the Sundara without issue. Sony DAPs have less power due to their digital amp tech (effectively a digital input Class D amp). It's more power efficient than the separate DAC...

That's the BJT Blue Hawaii, right? And what happened to the CRBN?

It seems spritzer has been busy. He recently listed an electrostatic CFA on his website. Supposedly warmer and more powerful than the KGSSHV. The CFA has been around for a bit for dynamic headphones, but I haven't seen much about the electrostatic variant of the design.

That's sort of the thing that's holding me back from the transformer path. I don't have a speaker amp, and I have no plans to get a speaker amp because I don't have speakers. I would basically be getting a speaker amp just for estats, and in that case, I think it would be simpler to just get an...

Yeah, it probably won't be your thing, but if you ever get the chance to demo it, I wouldn't pass up the opportunity. It never hurts to try :) The placement and depth of vocals is somewhere I disagree with Wave Theory's review. He thought that vocals were incredibly forward to the point of being...

I'm pretty curious about the Yamaha. I listened to it at TSAV last year and it's one of the most bizarre-sounding headphones I've heard. I used the leather earpads and I used both my ZX707 Walkman and the WA22. I'd characterize it as sort of a mashup between the MDR-Z1R and the SR-L700mk2, but...

Fortunately not for me. No unusual pressure for me. I did have to wear the earcups a little bit higher on the head because if I put them one notch lower on the adjustment slider, the edges of the headband where they meet the slider would press into my head above the ears and cause sore spots...

Spent much of my afternoon listening to this setup. Ferrum Erco Gen 2 --> CCS-Modded SRM-006tS from Mjolnir Audio. The amp uses RCA Clear Top 6CG7s. Headphones are the SR-X9000 and the Shangri-La Jr. The music source is my Japan-import Walkman ZX707 connected via USB, using the Walkman music...

I have questions to clarify the phrase "straight off the tubes". I presume you mean the EL84s in this case? Does the electrostatic output of the Z10e go through the ZOTL impedance converters like the other outputs do? I was watching some of LTA's presentations/talks with David Berning about his...

I made a post in its own thread, but I heard the Dan Clark E3 recently and I thought it was quite good. More dynamics than the previous generation of DCA headphones and nothing disagreeable in the "intangible" sound attributes like dynamics, soundstage, openness, etc. Now, I only listened for a...

I demoed the Aero on Friday at LTA HQ and I was quite surprised by its performance. I had thought the Aero would be warmer and smoother and possibly lack some detail vs the standard D/S DAC, but I was wrong on all of those fronts. I compared against the Ferrum Erco Gen 2 and I found no lack of...

My original plan going into the LTA demo was that the LTA chain would be a warm and smooth setup to complement another more energetic electrostatic setup. This demo cleared up my mistaken preconception. The Aero is not a warm, soft, and smooth DAC, at least with its stock tubes. It is on the...

So, on to my more detailed sound impressions. All of these impressions were with the SR-X9000 and the Z10e amp. The Aero used the balanced inputs while the Erco Gen 2 used the RCA inputs. I'll use a few broad buzzwords to start, then dive into each one. The Aero with stock tubes, compared to the...