[Jonathan]

Can anyone comment on sonic differences between these two preamps? Source would be a PS Audio PerfectWave DAC II; amp is a Parasound Halo A21. Thanks much.

Jon

[ClefChef]

Theoretically there is no difference - it's the same silonex ldr.

[craig sawyers]

Silonex was bought by Advanced Photonix (API) and that was merged with Luna a year ago.  Let's hope the critical LDR stays in production - there is nothing on either the API or Luna website about it, although key suppliers (Digikey, Farnell etc) show no signs of them going obsolete, and have stocks of thousands.

[tortugaranger]

The LDR3 was an earlier version of the current LDR3.V2. The LDR3 used a different PCB board design/layout (the V1) but used the same LDR make/model. However the LDR3 had a very low impedance profile compared to the later LDR3.V2 which technically could result in poorer sound quality depending on your source/amp combination. The LDR3 sounded great in most situations but I submit the LDR3.V2 is an overall better design which will likely sound great with almost any source/amp.

[Jonathan]

The LDR3 sounded great in most situations but I submit the LDR3.V2 is an overall better design which will likely sound great with almost any source/amp.

Thank you for clarifying. Another quick question, if I may: do you make a version with both balanced and unbalanced inputs/outputs? Thanks again.

Jon

[tortugaranger]

Thank you for clarifying. Another quick question, if I may: do you make a version with both balanced and unbalanced inputs/outputs? Thanks again.

Jon

Yes, our flagship LDRxB accommodates 3 XLR inputs plus 1 RCA input. The RCA input gets up-converted to balanced and treated as the 4th input. The selected input is available as both balanced (dual/parallel) and singled ended outputs. It runs $2695. Here's a link.

[Jonathan]

Yes, our flagship LDRxB accommodates 3 XLR inputs plus 1 RCA input. The RCA input gets up-converted to balanced and treated as the 4th input. The selected input is available as both balanced (dual/parallel) and singled ended outputs. It runs $2695

Ideally, I would love to own the balanced version, but find the cost to be somewhat prohibitive at this time. I know it's difficult to quantify changes in sound  (it drives me crazy when guys write they heard a very particular percentage of improvement or degradation), but I wondered if you could comment on what I could expect to hear differently between a balanced and unbalanced version of the preamp. Thanks again!

Jon

[tortugaranger]

Ideally, I would love to own the balanced version, but find the cost to be somewhat prohibitive at this time. I know it's difficult to quantify changes in sound  (it drives me crazy when guys write they heard a very particular percentage of improvement or degradation), but I wondered if you could comment on what I could expect to hear differently between a balanced and unbalanced version of the preamp. Thanks again!

Jon

I sympathize with your craziness. It seems to be part of the madness of our audio obsession.

I have 2 points to make the first of which will probably just add to the madness.

First, to my ears, there's something about running through balanced audio that seems to have a sonic edge over single ended. I say that solely from the very limited experience of our test DAC/AMP  in our shop witch handle both single-ended and balanced inputs. I won't extrapolate that to cover all balanced gear. You can find a lot of opinions on SE vs balanced in terms of sonics some of which claim balanced is superior and others saying they're the same all other things being equal....which they rarely are. Again, my sympathies.

My second point is that in my opinion our LDR1B.V2 (single input, dual output balanced) sounds the best of all of our models. My explanation is that being a single input unit it has no input switching hardware and thus the signal path is shorter and less complex. If you're willing to live with a single XLR input that may be a way to go balanced for less.

[Jonathan]

Thanks much.

[kernelbob]

Jon,

My LDR1B-V2 was the preamp we auditioned in your system.  When comparing it with that ARC preamp, I heard the same kind of differences as when I compared it with my ARC-REF3.  The ARC preamp's width collapsed compared with the Tortuga.  Also, the Tortuga was cleaner and with better bass punch.

I'm going to be using the LDRxB-V2 as my main preamp/attenuator.  I have to say that when I compared the LDR1B-V2 with the LDRxB-V2, I also found, as Morten indicated, that the 1B was slightly, very slightly, better than the xB.  However, I anticipate I'll be very happy using the xB for the main attenuator, relegating the 1B to the role of level matching the bass amps to the M/T amps in my bi-amped system.

Best,
Robert

p.s.  Morten, please don't forget that I need the yellow(orange? LEDs in my system and the Neotech wire, whatever you used in my LDR1B.  Thanks

[Jonathan]

My LDR1B-V2 was the preamp we auditioned in your system.

Thanks, Bob. I honestly could not remember if it had one input or more than one, so I was not sure. It makes it somewhat inconvenient to have only one input, but that's probably minor considering the cost savings of going that route. In any case, it was hard to argue with how good it sounded.