I've come to the realization that if I want a decent tube amp I'll have to be in the $2000 range. Unless I get a SET amp for the 2 planars I have
LTA VELO - Headphone Amp / Preamp
- Thread starter hifitoaster
- Start date
I preordered in November, so I gotta think mine should ship pretty close to first. And I haven't heard anything yet, so I'm guessing more delays unfortunately...
Tralfaz
Head-Fier
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From the LTA website:
Pre-Order Production Status: Velo production will begin once we receive final production components and case parts from our suppliers. We will begin full production the week of April 8th, with pre-orders shipping in the order they were received.
Fingers crossed things start moving soon!
Pre-Order Production Status: Velo production will begin once we receive final production components and case parts from our suppliers. We will begin full production the week of April 8th, with pre-orders shipping in the order they were received.
Fingers crossed things start moving soon!
Has anyone been trying this with high impedance headphones? I did not see output impedance. I know tube difference matters. I heard this at axpona
Huntersknoll
100+ Head-Fier
I believe the output impedance is 1.1ohms
Thanks. I only see planars being used these but I assume zmf headphones would be fine as well.
I think one of the more significant differences with the MZ3 is the absence of gain adjustment. Having said that, LTA has maintained its suitability with low impedance, high sensitivity headphones such as Grados and some IEMs even with stock tubes (12au7 tubes can be used to achieve lower gain alternatively). That's more than enough for me. For the asking price it's an acceptable compromise and the option to have the LPS later on gets this within my reach. Just waiting for initial feedback for the first owners which should come soon.
Im with ya. Because in that price range I'm looking at the kenzie, and this amp
Tralfaz
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LTA site updated today:
"Pre-Order Production Status: Now shipping! New orders ship in 3-4 weeks."
I have no idea where I am in the queue but this is very good news.
"Pre-Order Production Status: Now shipping! New orders ship in 3-4 weeks."
I have no idea where I am in the queue but this is very good news.
JacobLTA
Member of the Trade: Linear Tube Audio
First units have already started going out. Some of you may have yours by now. If not, hang tight as we work through our backlog.
New amp day! Doing some burn in, and loving the process. What a great product. I tried it at CanJam Dallas last November and fell in love. I just got back from a work trip late last night to see the LTA box sitting on my desk. I just finished setting it up. Lovely fit and finish, and I loved how easy it was to install the tubes with the sockets so high in the chassis. Great design. They also run super cool. I don't want to say anything about sound quality until I've given it a few days of burn in, but it's quite lovely for now. I tried a bunch of amps at CanJam with my ZMF Atrium Closed, and to my ears the Velo was the best synergy. I'm excited to be able to spend some time with it and enjoy the journey. I have quite a few tubes sitting on the shelf to roll in, but I want to give the stock tubes a fair shake for a few weeks to get to know them first.
Thanks @JacobLTA and Nicholas for all the hard work getting this product to market.
Thanks @JacobLTA and Nicholas for all the hard work getting this product to market.
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Huntersknoll
100+ Head-Fier
I too have an Olivewood AC so I am looking forward to your impression
Tralfaz
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My Velo arrived late last week and so far I am very pleased. I haven't done any critical listening yet but I do have some overall impressions to share.
First, the packaging is very well thought-out with everything well-protected and clearly labelled. The quick start guide had me up and running within minutes and LTA kindly included a new umbilical so I could connect the Velo to my LPS+ - very nice!
The Velo feels solidly built, it runs cool and quiet, and the switches and volume knob have a premium feel to them. The veto's volume control remembers the last volume setting for each input which is very neat.
I received my Velo with two Foton 6N8S and two JJ ECC81 tubes but for now I'm using the same tubes that came in my MZ2, a pair of RCA 12SN7s and a pair of Gold Lion 12AT7s, to minimize the number of variables. I would prefer to avoid obsessive tube rolling and experience has shown that LTA chooses the default tubes with sound quality and availability in mind and I plan to give them a try once things have settled in.
Over the last few months the team at LTA has impressed me with their thoughtful communication and overall dedication to customer service. It took longer than expected to get here but it's been worth the wait. Based on very early impressions, the Velo is a terrific product.
First, the packaging is very well thought-out with everything well-protected and clearly labelled. The quick start guide had me up and running within minutes and LTA kindly included a new umbilical so I could connect the Velo to my LPS+ - very nice!
The Velo feels solidly built, it runs cool and quiet, and the switches and volume knob have a premium feel to them. The veto's volume control remembers the last volume setting for each input which is very neat.
I received my Velo with two Foton 6N8S and two JJ ECC81 tubes but for now I'm using the same tubes that came in my MZ2, a pair of RCA 12SN7s and a pair of Gold Lion 12AT7s, to minimize the number of variables. I would prefer to avoid obsessive tube rolling and experience has shown that LTA chooses the default tubes with sound quality and availability in mind and I plan to give them a try once things have settled in.
Over the last few months the team at LTA has impressed me with their thoughtful communication and overall dedication to customer service. It took longer than expected to get here but it's been worth the wait. Based on very early impressions, the Velo is a terrific product.
Alright, I've received a few PMs asking for impressions, so I'll post up some early impressions publicly.
Bottom Line Up Front; great "blackness," great detail retreival, great separation, smooth flowing delivery.
Disclaimer. First, I'm a professional pilot that has tinnitus and hearing damage from hanging out around jet engines for a living. I can't do overly bright anything anymore. Second, there are 4 tubes in this amp. As anxious as I am to roll in some of the tubes I've been collecting, I'm giving the stock tubes a fair shake first, because the stock tubes don't suck. They are really nice actually. They deserve time to shine, but my experience with tubes is that they need 20-80 hours depending on the tube to really come into their own, and so far these have 8-10 hours, so it's unfair to the amp to make any sweeping statements until everything is broken in properly. Also, for listening these past 3 days, it's been FLAC fed through my beloved Schiit Gumby into the Velo and my Atrium Closed Olivewood. My wife has tried it a few times with her Auteur's and had similar experiences to mine, but I don't want to speak for her. She's on the board as well, so you can bug her for Auteur impressions @gingerFi
Alright, now to the good stuff. First listen out of the box was as a pre-amp to my AudioEngine A5+ powered desktop speakers. They sound really good, and are great bang for the buck, but they can't compete with my headphones, and that's fine. So I was surprised when I finished powering up the Velo that I was hearing more detail out of my A5's. Songs my wife and I know well just happened to be playing while we were dealing with the children and music was just playing in the background. We were both shocked at how big a difference in detail there was with the bookshelves. So that was awesome.
With my Atrium Closed, it was a slower start. I remembered listening at CanJam and being gobsmacked by the lush mids combined with the detail retrieval, and the way the Velo tightened up the generous bass that the AC's are known for. With my first listen, it wasn't there. Also, I was rushed on a Saturday morning with a short, 25 minute opportunity for a first lesson, followed by taking care of Saturday morning extra curriculars activities with the kids. Once again, these things need a bit of time to warm up. I don't know if 25 minutes is even enough time for the tubes to reach a steady state temperature. Later on Saturday afternoon when I had a free hour, I was noticing how much blacker the background was on a slightly longer listening session. My Lyr3 is not a noisy amp by any account, but the Velo is just so black. I didn't know it could get blacker, but here we are. That is not something I noticed at CanJam, probably because the floor was noisy and my office is not (when the kids aren't in it anyway). This is something I appreciate more and more with each progressive listen. It really allows the details to stand out. Now that I'm on day 3 of listening, the detail retrieval is really shining. I've listened to some favorite tracks by Shannon and the Clams and heard keyboard outros that I had never heard before. Always a great experience. The resolution helps add body to instruments as well. One of my favorite tracks of Dan Auerbach's second album, Waiting on a Song, is Never in My Wildest Dreams. It's a great, fun acoustic track. What an amazing experience with the Velo. I could hear the guitar resonating like I never had before. The Velo added so much body and timbre to the acoustic instruments that I hadn't noticed before. It's like you can see the inside of the guitar, the fretboard, the bridge, everything. Same story with the mandolin. So much more 3D sounding on acoustic instruments.
The Velo also does an amazing job of separating instruments and putting space between them. You can focus on an individual guitar, or piano, or vocals, or drum track because they are all separated and placed parallel in the mix as opposed to smeared together. Said another way, it's like watching the act you're listening to on stage and being able to direct your eyes and ears to the bass player and focus on what he's doing. The Velo paints all the parts of the mix with such separation and detail, you can just direct your mind's eye to what you want to listen to and focus on it. On Alice in Chains unplugged, Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell harmonize frequently, and the Velo makes it possible to distinguish Layne from Jerry clearly, and focus your mind's eye on which ever singer you choose, or relax and let the harmony wash over you. It's almost good to a fault. I appreciate the technical prowess that it takes to achieve the separation, kudos to the engineers at LTA, but it was so good it hurt one of my favorites. My favorite Jimi album is Electric Ladyland. I love the spacey vibe of all the reverb and effects Jimi uses. It's one of my all time favorites. On the track Long Hot Summer Night, the separation of the Velo in my mind separates Jimi's vocals from the mix. It's like I can see Jimi standing in the recording booth by himself singing the vocals over his pre-recorded guitars, which is a bit disappointing since I want to picture him singing and playing like he's live. Fortunately, on my favorite track, Voodoo Chile (not to be confused with Voodoo Child (slight return)) there are enough effects on Jimi's vocals that his vocal's weren't separated away from the other instruments as bad. So this isn't a problem with the amp, per se, rather it's a clear strength, it's just one that I didn't expect to have pros and cons depending on the recording quality and engineering of the track. Getting into A Merman I Should Turn to Be, the separation is the true super hero strength it should be. There's so much panning L/R of guitars, drums, guitars, detailed bass solos, guitars, flutes, vocals, and maybe another guitar track. The ability to separate all of that out clearly so you can listen to individual performances, and not be a smeared mess is really pleasant and captivating.
One thing that I think I may take for granted is how smooth and effortless this amps sounds. The music just has a flowing liquid quality that just washes over you. I listen to headphone almost exclusively with tubes, and I love that tube-y liquidity, and I almost take it for granted. My wife uses a (very nice) solid state amp as her daily driver and her first impression was how smooth and flowing the Velo is. So it deserves to be mentioned. Another strength is the lush mids. I'm a sucker for mids. I'm and Atrium owner because I prize mids. The Velo makes the strength of the Atrium stronger. They are detailed and full, but also relaxed and easy to listen to. Just like you want a really good tube amp to sound.
So with my AC's, great detailed bass, great textured mids, and detailed highs without sibilance.
I'll try to come up with something a bit more coherent in a few weeks, once I've rolled in more tubes and headphones. But for everyone that has PM'd me asking for impressions ASAP, there you go. I really like this amp, but I'm still getting to know it.
Bottom Line Up Front; great "blackness," great detail retreival, great separation, smooth flowing delivery.
Disclaimer. First, I'm a professional pilot that has tinnitus and hearing damage from hanging out around jet engines for a living. I can't do overly bright anything anymore. Second, there are 4 tubes in this amp. As anxious as I am to roll in some of the tubes I've been collecting, I'm giving the stock tubes a fair shake first, because the stock tubes don't suck. They are really nice actually. They deserve time to shine, but my experience with tubes is that they need 20-80 hours depending on the tube to really come into their own, and so far these have 8-10 hours, so it's unfair to the amp to make any sweeping statements until everything is broken in properly. Also, for listening these past 3 days, it's been FLAC fed through my beloved Schiit Gumby into the Velo and my Atrium Closed Olivewood. My wife has tried it a few times with her Auteur's and had similar experiences to mine, but I don't want to speak for her. She's on the board as well, so you can bug her for Auteur impressions @gingerFi
Alright, now to the good stuff. First listen out of the box was as a pre-amp to my AudioEngine A5+ powered desktop speakers. They sound really good, and are great bang for the buck, but they can't compete with my headphones, and that's fine. So I was surprised when I finished powering up the Velo that I was hearing more detail out of my A5's. Songs my wife and I know well just happened to be playing while we were dealing with the children and music was just playing in the background. We were both shocked at how big a difference in detail there was with the bookshelves. So that was awesome.
With my Atrium Closed, it was a slower start. I remembered listening at CanJam and being gobsmacked by the lush mids combined with the detail retrieval, and the way the Velo tightened up the generous bass that the AC's are known for. With my first listen, it wasn't there. Also, I was rushed on a Saturday morning with a short, 25 minute opportunity for a first lesson, followed by taking care of Saturday morning extra curriculars activities with the kids. Once again, these things need a bit of time to warm up. I don't know if 25 minutes is even enough time for the tubes to reach a steady state temperature. Later on Saturday afternoon when I had a free hour, I was noticing how much blacker the background was on a slightly longer listening session. My Lyr3 is not a noisy amp by any account, but the Velo is just so black. I didn't know it could get blacker, but here we are. That is not something I noticed at CanJam, probably because the floor was noisy and my office is not (when the kids aren't in it anyway). This is something I appreciate more and more with each progressive listen. It really allows the details to stand out. Now that I'm on day 3 of listening, the detail retrieval is really shining. I've listened to some favorite tracks by Shannon and the Clams and heard keyboard outros that I had never heard before. Always a great experience. The resolution helps add body to instruments as well. One of my favorite tracks of Dan Auerbach's second album, Waiting on a Song, is Never in My Wildest Dreams. It's a great, fun acoustic track. What an amazing experience with the Velo. I could hear the guitar resonating like I never had before. The Velo added so much body and timbre to the acoustic instruments that I hadn't noticed before. It's like you can see the inside of the guitar, the fretboard, the bridge, everything. Same story with the mandolin. So much more 3D sounding on acoustic instruments.
The Velo also does an amazing job of separating instruments and putting space between them. You can focus on an individual guitar, or piano, or vocals, or drum track because they are all separated and placed parallel in the mix as opposed to smeared together. Said another way, it's like watching the act you're listening to on stage and being able to direct your eyes and ears to the bass player and focus on what he's doing. The Velo paints all the parts of the mix with such separation and detail, you can just direct your mind's eye to what you want to listen to and focus on it. On Alice in Chains unplugged, Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell harmonize frequently, and the Velo makes it possible to distinguish Layne from Jerry clearly, and focus your mind's eye on which ever singer you choose, or relax and let the harmony wash over you. It's almost good to a fault. I appreciate the technical prowess that it takes to achieve the separation, kudos to the engineers at LTA, but it was so good it hurt one of my favorites. My favorite Jimi album is Electric Ladyland. I love the spacey vibe of all the reverb and effects Jimi uses. It's one of my all time favorites. On the track Long Hot Summer Night, the separation of the Velo in my mind separates Jimi's vocals from the mix. It's like I can see Jimi standing in the recording booth by himself singing the vocals over his pre-recorded guitars, which is a bit disappointing since I want to picture him singing and playing like he's live. Fortunately, on my favorite track, Voodoo Chile (not to be confused with Voodoo Child (slight return)) there are enough effects on Jimi's vocals that his vocal's weren't separated away from the other instruments as bad. So this isn't a problem with the amp, per se, rather it's a clear strength, it's just one that I didn't expect to have pros and cons depending on the recording quality and engineering of the track. Getting into A Merman I Should Turn to Be, the separation is the true super hero strength it should be. There's so much panning L/R of guitars, drums, guitars, detailed bass solos, guitars, flutes, vocals, and maybe another guitar track. The ability to separate all of that out clearly so you can listen to individual performances, and not be a smeared mess is really pleasant and captivating.
One thing that I think I may take for granted is how smooth and effortless this amps sounds. The music just has a flowing liquid quality that just washes over you. I listen to headphone almost exclusively with tubes, and I love that tube-y liquidity, and I almost take it for granted. My wife uses a (very nice) solid state amp as her daily driver and her first impression was how smooth and flowing the Velo is. So it deserves to be mentioned. Another strength is the lush mids. I'm a sucker for mids. I'm and Atrium owner because I prize mids. The Velo makes the strength of the Atrium stronger. They are detailed and full, but also relaxed and easy to listen to. Just like you want a really good tube amp to sound.
So with my AC's, great detailed bass, great textured mids, and detailed highs without sibilance.
I'll try to come up with something a bit more coherent in a few weeks, once I've rolled in more tubes and headphones. But for everyone that has PM'd me asking for impressions ASAP, there you go. I really like this amp, but I'm still getting to know it.
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