All,
This weekend I was able to listen for a few hours each day to LIO DHT Integrated Amplifier fitted with Takatsuki TA-300B tubes DAC 2.0. I burned them in for a total of about 100 hours last week. I’m not sure if they will get even better (they might!). Ok, here we go:
Takatsuki TA-300BI am excited to say that I found that the TA-300B
fully realizes what I set out to achieve with the LIO DHT PRE design. It simply excels at delivering a vast, holographic soundstage beyond what I have heard with any other DHT at this point. It truly is an incredibly open and spacious sounding tube!
It also offers amazing nuance and layers of texture that lets you hear deep into the recording. A handful of other DHTs provide excellent detail, but TA-300B has a crystalline quality and seems to pull it all off without a hint of hardness or glare. It is hard to put it into words – and while I do not want to be cliché and just say, “there is this magic going on,” but it is something like that.
The TA-300B gives a healthy dose of richness to the sound, but not overly rich or “thick." Therefore, attributes such as speed and transient attack are fast and snappy and never rounded out or sluggish sounding. Notes on pianos, guitar strings, cymbals, etc. have awesome decay after the strike/pluck, and remarkable precision.
Vocals are simply natural, breathy, and tangible.
In terms of bass response, the TA-300B has clean, tight bass. It’s quick and very well defined, but I can see how one might prefer the bass of the KR PX-4, which seems to have a little more weight (see below), or an SV811-10 (even weightier). But listening to the TA-300B, I never once felt the bass was lacking in quantity.
So are these TA-300B’s “perfect?” It is hard to say for sure how others would find their sound – especially with a different speakers, rooms, positioning, etc. In the past when we had the DHT Tube Tour, the impressions of the same tubes in the LIO DHT PRE varied quite a bit from person to person, so I would imagine the same could happen here. For me, the TA-300B is the most perfect of any of the DHTs that I have heard so far with LIO DHT PRE. This comes at a high price (MSRP is $2500/pair).
TA-300B vs KR PX-4So are the TA-300Bs ‘significantly’ better the KR PX-4? No, not significantly. Some might actually prefer the KR PX-4’s slightly weightier bass and richer tone (I love those qualities, too!). But in terms of clarity, openness, air, speed, texture, and delicacy, the TA-300B does these things like no other DHT that I have heard so far in this circuit topology. It is remarkable, and just to emphasize what I mentioned above, the TA-300B is not lacking at all in bass or tonal richness. It is only when you compare them side-by-side to the KR PX-4 that you notice it.
TA-300B is a quiet tube that has lower microphonics and self-noise than the KR PX-4.
So am I selling off my KR PX-4’s? No way! I love them and will continue to enjoy them and bring them to the shows. For under $1k/pair, I say they are the ones to beat. But from what I heard over this weekend, TA-300B now becomes my reference tube for LIO DHT PRE.
Vinnie
