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By golly, it looks like Cherry product!
Avs, How much did that one off cost?
Hi all,I highly recommend the Tortuga LDR controller. I've used one for several years now. The sound quality remains the best I've heard from either active or passive preamp/controllers. A key to its performance is that there are no switches, potentiometers, stepped attenuators, or capacitors in the signal path.I'm using the LDRxB which is the balanced version. My Tortuga drives a bi-amplified system with a pair of Lampizator 211 True Balanced monoblocks (moving the the Pacific 211 monoblocks soon) on the M/T and a pair of Spectron Musician III Mk2 on the woofers. The source is the Lampizator Pacific DAC which outputs 3V. Plenty of volume. I can generate volumes of the loudest orchestral passages (measured using a DB meter at live performances) using -12 dB attenuation on the Tortuga in my system.All of the Tortuga's settings are controlled via software, so every control can be accessed from the provided Apple remote. That makes it easy to instantly hear the differences that you make on the fly. There's just about every control and set-up option you could want.Input impedance settings are available in 1-kohm steps from 1k to 99k (in my balanced unit that's per phase). My Pacific DAC sounds best seeing a high input impdance, I've settled on 97k per phase. That optimum value varies in my system depending on the output tubes I use in the Pacific DAC. By comparison, the Schiit DAC I used sounded best at around 67 kohms. You can save any nine custom input impedance settings and switch between them using the remote while listening to the differences from your listening position.If you use a balanced system, you can order the Tortuga with absolute phase/polarity control and yes, you can easily tell the difference. This is very useful since the correct setting varies from one recording to the next.An Achilles heel of many passive controllers is lean bass. The Tortuga has full bodied bass with extremely deep extension to the lowest frequencies. Soundstaging is wide, deep, with precisely placed instruments & voices. Individual instrumental lines in complex orchestrations are surprisingly easy to follow.Best,Robert