SOLDFor sale is a reference quality LDR based volume control that is destined to become a collector’s item. Only four of these units were made and I’m reluctantly letting go of the one that was custom built for me.
This volume control uses a Tortuga Audio LDR master controller board but what makes it unique is the fine tuning, the voicing, and the assembly and casing that has been done by Aum Acoustics. Most everyone owning a Tortuga or DIY version uses standard low quality connectors, wire, and assembly techniques and the end result is a good but still average sound.
This unit utilizes high-purity custom made pure solid silver, solid gold, and solid platinum wire to make the connections to the inputs and outputs as well as the DC power and other non-audio circuits. This wire ended up costing Aum Acoustics over $4,000 to both R&D the sound as well as to learn how to make the audio connections properly. Two aerospace engineers were consulted to provide a solution for conneKcting gold, silver and platinum together at the RCA jack junctions. A unique space industry indium flux had to be formulated and the wire and flux cost was extravagant in cost but provides a sound quality unlike anything available in the market place today. Because of the high expensive involved in building these units, only 4 units were produced. This expensive R&D cost was not passed on to the owners of these 4 custom built LDR volume control units and Aum Acoustics suffered a considerable loss while building these 4 volume controls. The goal for their production was to create a world class sound and to do so in a way that a normal manufacturer would never consider.
In addition to the exotic wire, the best RCA connectors were used, the Furutech FP-901 connectors. Explore tehse on the Internet and you’ll find that these chassis jacks are the best anyone has made to date and they sound spectacular. They sound even better than the WBT jacks. At over $90 cost per pair, there are three pair of FP-901 jacks in this unit.
This volume control is a passive unit, has a 10K input impedance (good for driving most any solid state and tube amp including the difficult JOB225), and has one pair of inputs and two pair of outputs. One of the output RCA pair has the exotic gold, silver, platinum wiring and you can use either these or the solid silver wire pair for connection to your power amp.
I can assure you that there is nothing that sounds like this preamp on the market today. This is pure perfection and state of the art when you have a system that doesn’t need the additional gain provided by an active preamplifier.
This volume control unit needs to have an external 12VDC supply connected to its 2.1mm DC jack on the rear panel. Aum Acoustics has found that a cheap wall wart doesn’t do this unit justice so will not ship one of those with this unit. Aum Acoustics does, however, make its own 12VDC highly tweaked 12VDC supply and if you’re interested, please contact them for more information. I’ve been using a Paul Haynes 12VDC supply and it sounds really good.
This volume control has a really good looking two digital blue LED display hidden behind the dark gray plexiglass front cover. Your volume level can easily be seen from way across the room but of course, the brightness level can be reduced or increased on a 1 to 15 scale of brightness. The front panel was custom built by Front Panel Express using the design provided by Aum Acoustics. The rear panel is 5mm anodized aluminum and is a custom panel that is much thicker than the typical panels on most chassis.
The volume and various functions (LED brightness, left right channel balance, etc) on this unit are controlled either by the volume control knob on the front panel or the cool looking Apple remote that is included with this unit.
If you have questions regarding this units design or construction, Aum Acoustics has volunteered to help provide information. I’ve already informed Richard Becker of Aum Acoustics of this potential sale and he’s volunteered to help inform and service the next end user. Feel free to send me an PM and I’ll connect you with Richard to have a detailed discussion about the design and use of this exquisite volume control.
It costs too much to build these units and there are only 4 in the world in the hands of avid audio end users. Mine is the first to go up for sale and I’m sure it will provide tremendous satisfaction for most anyone desiring to obtain the best sounding passive volume control available today.
Parts cost alone were $ 1,100. Typically, a normal audio component is marked up three times its parts cost. In this case, I received an absolute bargain and I also didn’t need to pick up the amortized R&D cost that ended up being around $1,000 additional cost per unit. I am asking $1,100.00 OBO
Let me know if you’re interested in this incredible volume control. I have it available and ready to ship. It has been used only in my home studio in a non-smoker and impeccably clean environment.
Also included, my Paul Haynes 12/2 power supply. They also are very hard to get.
Kind regards,
Guy
