LTA thread, MZ2 / MZ3 / Z10 / Z40 / Ultralinear

Nice fix. It is indeed blindingly bright, even on the lowest setting. I don’t know who could ever use it at the brightest setting, even in a sunlit room it’s too much, IMO.

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I see you are on the correct volume. Nice!

I wish the led on the lampi was as easy to change, that blue is a weird sickening blue. Tbh most people use blue and i am just think other colors do it better.

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It’s obligatory at this point.

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Tbh i will take the mojo blue over whatever the weird teal teethpaste color the lampi has.

Changing the Lampi button is not for the feint of hard, not difficult but would require de soldering and soldering six to 8 wires from what I recall since the front panel switch had different functions based on whether it was pressed in or out.

Continuing on my low dollar efforts to get the most I can possibly squeeze out of my system, (don’t worry, I’m still working on the vibration isolation) :slight_smile: I ordered a pair of Staccato OPamps. Ben at Mojo swears by them, they’ve got the @Gothique seal of approval.

The amp section of the LTA UL has two LF412-CN dual OPamps. What’s a tweaker to do? I shared some emails with Jakub ad Staccato and he confirmed the specs match his product specs, so LET’S GO!

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Look forward to your impressions.

To be honest, I’m a little worried as changing an OPAmp is trivial and an improvement in many cases is low hanging fruit. This is a $7500 component so don’t know if there’s a reason these specific OPAms were chosen. They’re not very talked about and little info on them anywhere other than Mouser’s site, and they’re a couple of bucks a piece so not that they’re high end in any way.

I have the staccato still for my soloist and yeah it’s legit. But I am paranoid, since the last time I changed op-amps my hps blew. Did nothing wrong, no idea what the problem was to this day. Lol

I’m often surprised by how cheap some opamps are compared to others. I suspect that it is a relatively small and subtle change in the scheme of things and almost certainly overlaps with subjective impressions and taste.

Most people probably are not as interested in tiny incremental changes as people who wind up here are going to be either and are probably not interested in listening that insanely intently! Also I wonder if a lot more people will tune to their preference with equalizers rather than a component change.

I suppose also it will affect some equipment more than others. Perhaps the circuit simplicity is important, or other qualities?

I would also add that I think there is a use case thing too. The Staccato overall changed my amp for the better but it did make it less of an all rounder. Mid focussed headphones really sound muffled now. Can’t abide my Elegia on it now. So a less specialised opamp might be more universal? Interesting topic.

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Personally I think it really just depends on what circuit they’re going into as they’ll all potentially react differently in each different preamp/dac/amp/etc, but I think the reason you see some higher end designers using some cheaper or just lesser known op amps (or dac chips, or what have you) is either because they think it sounds best in their circuit, or because that’s just what they’re most comfortable with (you also see this with dac chips quite often, just because a chip is technically “better” some will instead prefer some of the older or lower end chips as they think they can squeeze more out of them or just know how to implement them better). Think on some of the cheaper stuff upgrading opamps can be a bigger win because there’s less care on implementation and less budget for getting nice opamps, but on higher end stuff they’re likely there for a reason (but doesn’t mean it might not be worth swapping and seeing how they change lol)

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You really want to know what they are being used for, before you start randomly swapping things, if it’s just a unity gain buffer, on the input or output, I wouldn’t bother.

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I agree with both you guys, figured it was worth a look and they’re items I’ll always be able to find a use for at some point.

I did NOT want to talk to LTA for obvious reasons, and I believe that it may be just that @Polygonhell used for unity gain on the input from what I can tell.

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You won’t hear a lot of difference between op amps if that’s the case, and it may not even be in use by some of the inputs.
You can just trace the traces and see what it’s connected to.
The UL is also expensive enough, that if there was much of a win swapping those out they likely would have, or they selected them as a part of the signature.

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That was my thought as well, I doubt they skimping, it’s probably a matter of it just fulfilling a function and they’d offer it as an “upgrade” if it was meaningful.

For those same obvious reasons, I’d be careful about invalidating your warranty if you do accidentally damage the amp. They don’t appear to be as supporting of changing op amps as Burson is, but then I’ve never asked them.

Would you like me to ask LTA, so there’s no audit trail back to you? I email Nicholas at LTA on a semi-regular basis with random questions, so this could just be another of those.

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Maybe, it would be interesting to hear what he says. I would trust them.

The UL is the device they used to showcase their new DAC in DC show, I doubt they’d leave performance on the table for an additional $100 expense.

I’m coming to the end of the buying spree that started at the beginning of lockdown, moving from a BF2 and Lyr3 to a Mojo Mystique X SE and way too many amps, but the MZ3, Nautilus and Burson Soloist 3XP are in active use.

I’m pretty happy with what I have, and have no driving need to upgrade anything other than the Burson, which I actually like (I know there are some Burson haters over here LOL), but having recently borrowed the Pass HPA-1, I now know that there is at least one solid state amp that is a better fit for my preferences. I’ve listened to the GSX mini, Ferrum Oor and Benchmark HPA4, and as much as I liked them, I didn’t like them any more than the Burson. But the Pass blew me away.

But… I see LTA amps as a solid state equivalent, partly because they’re not “tubey” in sound IMO but also because the tubes last so long. For instance, I can leave the MZ3 on all day and not worry about how many hours I’ve wasted on those tubes.

I was wondering if there is an LTA equivalent to the HPA-1, offering a clean and uncolored but non-fatiguing sound, with plenty of detail and a huge, enveloping stage. From reading @dB_Cooper’s posts, I’m guessing that the Ultralinear would be the one. Am I right?

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I haven’t heard anything LTA but my Z40+ and can say it’s awesome clean uncolored and non fatiguing. The UL is probably the more linear and resolving as they intend it to be but tbh if you’re upgrading from the MZ3 (which personally I don’t think you should for headphones alone) I would without a doubt get a Z10E. It’s the most feature rich, estats supported, and decent speakers power.

But again, I would stay with the MZ3 and look elsewhere for other flavors or upgrades. These high end integrated are a comparable price to the Zahl HM1 just as an example

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I think the Pass is the way to go. Having an MZ3, it’s my next amp (HPA-1). I doubt there’s an LTA option that matches the Pass’ sound tbh.

And you won’t have to worry about tubes… at all. :grin:

My thinking is MZ3 for efficient dynamics, and the HPA-1 can do dynamic and planars.

Just my two cents.

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