I've had my LLCP playing for a couple of weeks now. To say i'm enjoying it would be an understatement
.
I can say that it absolutely TROUNCES my Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 Signature.
As everyone has already mentioned this preamp is Dead quiet! I knew my SFL-1 was a bit noisy but I had no idea how much music it was obscuring. When I sit and listen now, I am in awe of the details that are dancing around my room. I can truely hear a big difference between my SACD and CD collection where before I could only detect a subtle change when I spun an SACD. Lately, I'm very happy that I took the SACD plunge. In the last two weeks I've doubled my SACD collection, all to the credit of the LLCP.
I did notice a short break in period of 4 days, in which the high end smoothed out a bit. The bass and mid range have not changed much. I'm hearing tight, solid bass with extended highs. My SFL-1 in comparison, now seems attenuated in the top octave. I have not noticed the cliche "Solid State" grain that I was expecting to hear; instead, the mid range is also without the hash and noise that I was hearing with my SFL-1. I don't know how the midrange would compare to a top notch tube pre, but I definetly don't hear any grain. On the subject of grain. This weekend my Bro brought over his Bryston BP25 and WOW, this thing is jagged! BTW, my bro left yesterday scratching his head and couldn't quite shake that puzzled look from his face after hearing his BP25 head to head with the LLCP
The build quality is amazing at this price. It is easily on par with the build quality of my Stratos and the SFL-1. Very heavy construction with solid switches.
The Ladder attenuator is very solid yet easy to use. After reading some complaints about the AIM3A having coarse gain at the lower settings, I decided to carefully listen to the attenuator steps of the LLCP. In the end, I would have liked for the first 3 steps to have a little less gain. The lowest setting is quiet, but the music can still be heard in adjacent rooms (some times my wife likes me to turn the music down so that she can't hear it while she reads). The first 3 steps are also the most aggressive, while the steps from about 10 oclock to 3 oclock are very small. I have not heard a M3A, but it would be interesting to see how the attenuator steps compare. I wonder if this is a design compromise of the Ladder attenuators?
Also, at my usual listening level I have the attenuator at step 9. This is about 76-80db average. from my 1801's. If I want to rock a little louder I can easily tolerate up to step 15 (remember the steps from 9 to 15 are very gradual). So, most of the attenuator range is very usable. Unlike my SFL-1 where 10 o-clock would be unbearable in my room. I have never had the need to use the 9db or 12db gain settings. At 6db the gain is plentiful, as I never exceed step 15 on the knob.
The Blue LED is very bright and will likely bother those who like a completely dark listening experience. I personally think it's cool looking.
On a side note, the LLCP has also exposed greater differences between my home brew IC's. My CVH Silver IC's are now far superior to some 89259 IC's I have. The detail and attack is much more defined with the CVH cables versus the 89259. I still don't notice any brighness or glare from the CVH recipe but I wish I still had the Eichmann/CVH cables so that I could hear them with the broken-in LLC-P (I only had the Eichmann/CVH cables for a couple days while the LLCP was burning in). I think I will build another pair soon.
Over-all an exceptional value. I am very thankful to all manufacturers who can bring high end sound to those of us with more meager budgets
. IRD is among them. Curt was highly professional to deal with. I would gladly do business with him again.
Good luck,
EP
