Thanks for sharing your thoughts! From the quick listen I got, the UL+ → Weiss → VC combo sounded really good.
I’m really curious how close or how different each of these sound. Maybe next time I visit, when you get your Omega’s, I can bring the MZ2 and we can test. 
I can see upgrading to the Z10 in the future.
You can recoup some of the $ from your MZ2 easy enough! The Z10 seems to be the sweet spot from a value standpoint anyway. Just tell your wife that when you have to justify the purchase. LOL
I already have a trade in price from LTA. “Whenever I am ready”, he says. 
Going to be on a cup noodle diet for the next few months. 
Does anyone know what difference can be expected in a MZ2 with a regular SMPS vs having the LPS? Its like 500 dalla more for the LPS
It’s been a while since I had the MZ2, but if memory serves, you’ll get a blacker background and an improvement in dynamics and impact. I bought the MZ2 used, then ordered the LPS+ from LTA and it was a nice upgrade. Especially if you plan to keep it longer term, it’s worth its price, imo.
Thanks, your memory is good enough, in no other forum we can talk civilly about power supplys
And it makes sense because that upgrade is precisely what power supplies tend to do
I don’t know what the power requirements for the MZ2 are but you can probably get a sense by plugging in another LPS with the same output.
BTW, a SMPS is not in and of itself a bad thing. I have a ifi Power Elite and they’re fantastic, the Burson Super Charger was also fantastic.
The LTA sounds like a logical purchase though. You’ll get more value if you sell it and you’ll certainly get improvement if you keep it. It’s also useable with the MZ3 when you upgrade. lol
12V 3A, weirder cable though so might require some special cabling to use
No, there can be equally good smps and linear psu, just happens in this case that their smps is their lower end option and the linear is the higher end one
The MZ3 comes with the linear psu by default
Did not know that, explains some of the price difference to a degree.
@M0N Since you’ve got experience with the UL, did you ever use the speaker out to power hard to drive headphones such as the Sus? Curious to know if that’s a capability I can leverage in the future (if it’s worth while I mean) as the high and lo HP out do a good job as is.
Yes, it actually did a pretty decent job, drove the susvara surprisingly well (keep in mind though I was running 2 so doubling the power), and very nice with a mysphere 3.2 as well. Utopia was enjoyable as well. I used the utopia and mysphere off a speaker tap resistor box and the susvara direct tap (although I didn’t really do it often and more used that amp for mainly speakers)
LOL of course you were. Thanks, I’m not sure I’ll get to explore next steps in the HP world but it’s nice to know that I have the option. I’ve been very happy so far with this purchase.
It has the capability, it’s just a simple switch to turn it into mono mode for monobocking, so I just thought I might as well grab 2, and that’s what I did lol. Was worthwhile with the spatials
Thoughts ran through my head as well as the UL Int has a full range out that I could then use to double my power if I ever wanted to go that route.
I know you said it’s bettered by other amps in your stable. I’m afraid to ask how high the escalator goes because frankly I’m at the end of my financial tether at this point. Seriously have to focus on retirement $ and a dollar spent now probably means three dollars more I could have had down the road.
Could the MZ2 be considered a RNHP upgrade? Overall sound and synergies wise it may based on what ive read, also dig the midrange focus.
I would pair it mainly with focal clear, and a bunch of audio technicas. Dac would be BF2.
It could, the headphones you have would work well, I can’t say it really sounds like a neve, but I can see how someone who likes one might like the other
I thought the Hafler HA-75 v1 was a reasonably similar upgrade from the RNHP…more so than the MZ2, anyway. I’ve only ever seen a couple pop up used, but I believe they’re still making the v2. I liked the MZ2 better overall, though.
To go back to the beginning of the story, I first heard the MZ3 on the morning of day 1 of CanJam, in the ZMF room. I’d fallen in love with the Atrium on the ZMF Decware OTL, fed by an Yggy, and then decided to try the Atrium on the MZ3 next to it. In comparison to the Decware, basslines sounded wooly and not as defined. I immediately wrote off LTA amps as not for me.
The next day, right before lunch, I was back in the ZMF room, listening to my favorite combo. A friend of mine asked to try the Decware, so I sat next to him, next to the LTA again. I thought what the hell, I know I don’t like it, but while I’m waiting to hear his impressions of the Decware, I’ll waste some time on the LTA. It sounded different, quite enjoyable, and the bass was tight.
After lunch, I found the LTA table and told him that I hated the MZ3 yesterday and liked it today. He said that it may have been because the amp needs a couple of hours of warm-up, and I was listening to it cold. It may also have been because the Decware emphasized the bass more, and the first impression of the LTA was that it was lacking bass authority. He also told me that ZMF had an older model, and if I liked theirs, I might be surprised at how much I liked the current model even more, particularly the bass.
I then proceeded to spend an hour listening to my favorite songs on the MZ3, fed by an MHDT Labs Orchid DAC, using my Stellia, to reduce the variables. I was blown away at how natural it sounded, how much texture I could hear in string instruments, and how much body I could hear in synths. And the bass was perfect for me, not over-emphasized, but very tight.
I’d stopped at the Benchmark table before coming to LTA, listening to a HPA4 fed by a DAC3 B, and as enjoyable as that was in terms of detail, clarity and neutrality, I realized that my foot wasn’t tapping when I was listening to any songs that had a groove. When I tried the same songs on the LTA, I realized that there was a difference between “studio neutral” and “listening pleasure neutral” and that LTA did something to the mids that, while still very natural, was somehow captivating. And yes, my foot was tapping. Of course some of you will prefer the studio neutral Benchmark sound, but that shows that we are all listening for our own pleasure, not other people’s.
I decided to buy an LTA, and thought about perhaps buying one of the more expensive models, but given the discount I was being offered, the fact that I don’t have any speakers and don’t have any hard-to-drive headphones, plus I knew I liked this particular amp that was on the table in front of me, I decided to get the MZ3.
I haven’t had a chance to have an extended listening period at home, partly because I went to CanJam with a couple of friends and invited them back to my place the next day to listen to my stuff, i.e. I spent the whole day watching them listen to my equipment, which was still an enjoyable experience.
My listening chain is PC → JCAT XE USB card → Black Cat Digit USB cable → MC-3+ Smart USB → Snake River Boomslang spdif cable → Mojo Mystique X SE dac → ampsandsound Nautilus, ZMF Pendant OG, Burson Soloist 3XP and LTA MZ3 amps.
My friends tried every combination, and as much as they were wowed by the Nautilus, there was something about the seductive LTA mids that made them return to that again and again. Bear in mind that they had also had the same negative experience as me with the MZ3 in the ZMF room, so we had all done a 180.
The limited time I’ve spent with the MZ3 has been awesome. I hesitate to say “smooth sounding” because that might imply that the music has been smoothed over. Maybe “absence of glare” is a better description. I thought I already had an absence of glare, because the combination of the Mojo Mystique X and Mutec is so natural sounding, but the MZ3 seems to have taken that to another level.
Yoooo nice lol, glad you are liking the mz3, it’s a damn solid amp, and that’s a damn solid chain you have for it too
That’s a good way to compare. I thought that I didn’t “like” neutral because of the clinical or antiseptic connotations other brands have associated with the term. LTA has a correctness, a feeling of what you’re hearing certainly being neutral but it’s a neutrality centered in what reality sounds like. Unembellished yet right, uncolored yet with a tangible body and texture. It took a while to understand why but it’s entirely changed my perspective on how to enjoy an audio chain.
