Yes, this. I thought I’d experienced this with other gear, but the Mojo DAC showed me how something can be neutral and musical, and then LTA took that to another level. Maybe one day, I’ll look into a Z40 or an Ultralinear like yours (and I will give you full credit for sparking my interest in LTA before CanJam) but I’m really happy with what I have.
As an interesting epilogue to my story, I emailed Benjamin, the owner/chief designer of Mojo Audio, to tell him how much my friends and I loved the combination of the Mojo Mystique X and the MZ3. He said he wasn’t surprised at the synergy between the 2 because he used to partner with LTA at shows, and used to mod MZ2’s. He said that many of the improvements that were implemented in the MZ3 were based on his mods.
Not to take away from anything LTA but it seems like the Yggy is continually popping up as the go to dac for a ton of these demos. I can see a yggy → ECP 3F / Dec / LTA being a perfect stopping point for my headphone side.
Which is an interesting as the SE of the Yggy is not as good as the XLR. I knew I’d wind up with an SE amp and specifically didn’t keep my Yggy for it but I guess a Yggy SE out is still higher quality than a BF2 balance. I don’t know.
Yes by quite a lot. The Yggy is s much better DAC than the BF2.
SE out on the A1 Yggy’s had a worse drop off in quality than the A2’s, but it’s all relative the fall off isn’t dramatic, it just tends to get exaggerated.
I really love the MZ3. One thing that I’ve noticed is that it seems to pair better with dynamics vs. planars. I’m not sure why, but this has been my experience.
It has just the right amount of punch, speed, and immediacy for dynamics, imo. I find the bass to be well controlled and quite textured. Timbre is pretty spot on as well.
Yes, it’s very neutral, but I think of it as being more natural as many have stated above.
I agree with this. Yggy has the biggest difference between bal and se ive heard, but tbh, i still dont think its enough to worry about at its price point
I agree here because I now have first hand experience. I had the opportunity to pair my 8KP with an MZ3 and it did sound great but… it sounds a lot better with my UL+. @NickMimi also pointed out that I kept raising the volume on it as I was comparing my 8KP to other cans. Perhaps it’s just that it runs out of power? Idk.
The UL+ simply doesn’t suffer the same fate and it’s the only reason I head it while listening to the MZ3. It’s just not fair to compare it to something that’s over twice the price though.
I think the MZ3 is some type of hybrid OTL amp OTL amps in general don’t mate well w/ planars…they are all about dynamic HP’s. I think…feel free to correct me in my wrongness.
You arent wrong but i would say you are even less right than your “arent wrong”.
OTLs dont like planars because of how exactly they deliver power and how well they handle low impedence stability. The mz3 is technicaly OTL. Tha said, the zolt topology has very very good super low impedence stability and actualy has a more current favored power delivery than voltage favored. My guess as to what is going on is simply that the mz3 cant handle large swings as well as other stuff which matters much more for highly air damped planara than open floating dynamics
It’s just that most planar are low impedance high current loads, and most all otl favor higher impedance higher voltage loads. The oi of otl also tend to be pretty high leading to the typical characteristics of impedance mismatch (although most planar actually are less sensitive to this than dynamic form my experience)
Yes, but from my experience I’d agree it’s an amp that generally does pair better with dynamics than planars, at least from what I’ve tried. Could have something to do with how the amp was designed and what it was voiced with
Yup. I think its a voicing thing since even the speaker amps dont reportedly sound great with planars. I mostly jusy wanted to point out that the normal problems with PTL + planars dont apply to LTAs because of their wierd ass topology
Basically what headphones the amp was designed to work well with, what it was tested with during creation, etc. All just guessing though unless you ask the designer themselves lol
Okay, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding. To be honest, the idea of voicing was not one I’d ever considered before. Makes a lot of sense.
OTL amps in general don’t mate well w/ planars…they are all about dynamic HP’s. I think…feel free to correct me in my wrongness.
