After probably a year of reading review after review about the UL, I finally took a chance to audition it in my house on my speakers (Spatial M3 Triode Master). Seeing all that was said about it's comparison with other amps, LTA or otherwise, I was simply too curious to not hear it at some point.
In short, I'm glad I did but I also sometimes wish I could leave well enough alone. I feel like that's a common symptom of our shared disorder.
Even on a frozen cold amp, music came out swinging and was immediately very distinctive compared to the LTA Z10. I let it play all day while I worked to get up to temperature and break in a little. When I got my Z10, I had to cover the rear facing side of the open back tweeter because of a little too much treble energy which eventually smoothed out enough to remove the cover about 3 months later. I expect to have to do the same with the UL since it's a little much early on. After about 6 hours of warming up, I sat down to run it through some old standards and was taken aback by how much more was coming through compared to the Z10.
The Z10 has a lot of great things going on. Super smooth, dynamic, clear, and spacious with a decent bass, palpable midrange imaging, and open extended treble. The UL takes these a considerable step further. Bass lines that were impressive to be handled with 12 watts are incredible on the UL. So much stronger control and dexterity around transitions between bass notes, the attack and decay on them, and the depth to which they go without getting flabby or loose. I typically don't listen to classical on the stereo since it's not been incredibly engaging. Not so with the UL. The bass drum pounds were startlingly real (scared my dogs) on O Fortuna and individual singers could be picked out among the choir. Classical now sounds VERY engaging and captures the ebb and flow of a symphony way more like a live performance than the Z10 could do. Illustrating the bass was instrumental to that effect and the UL does it extremely well. I had hooked up the speaker level outputs to my sub on the Z10 to get a bit more bass heft....not needed with the UL at all.
The midrange gains even more space and texture, with an effect I can only describe as almost wrapping around your head slightly rather than being projected at it. Imaging is still spot on, but the width and depth expanded by a sizeable degree. Ethereal effects and background instruments envelop and surround you like being on the front row. So much of what I (and most folks it seems) enjoy exists in how well midrange is reproduced. Voices, guitars, etc. get more real and show more of what the artist intended when it is skillfully amplified. The LTA makes it all more real and more "reach out and touch it".
The top end is airy and extended as well. No tube roll-off...even though my ears might prefer a little of that. So much clarity and space it (like other reviewers have said) makes other amps sound broken for how much noise and distortion they introduce to dull this reproduction with transformers and other noisy components. The UL (and the Z10) strip this away so effectively, it's forehead-slap inducing. I assume that as with the Z10, more break in will smooth this out even further and just get better over time.
Some other slight differences between the Z10 and UL are that the UL tubes glow a little brighter and hotter and that the UL volume control relays are a little quieter when you click the volume around.
All in all, the UL's bass and midrange performance even on my already sensitive (95db) speakers showed me that though 12 watts is "enough" with the Z10, the extra oomph provided by the different circuit and slightly higher wattage isn't insignificant and worth the audition of the UL if you have the chance.
DAC - MHDT Orchid
Source - Bluesound Node 2i streaming Spotify
In short, I'm glad I did but I also sometimes wish I could leave well enough alone. I feel like that's a common symptom of our shared disorder.
Even on a frozen cold amp, music came out swinging and was immediately very distinctive compared to the LTA Z10. I let it play all day while I worked to get up to temperature and break in a little. When I got my Z10, I had to cover the rear facing side of the open back tweeter because of a little too much treble energy which eventually smoothed out enough to remove the cover about 3 months later. I expect to have to do the same with the UL since it's a little much early on. After about 6 hours of warming up, I sat down to run it through some old standards and was taken aback by how much more was coming through compared to the Z10.
The Z10 has a lot of great things going on. Super smooth, dynamic, clear, and spacious with a decent bass, palpable midrange imaging, and open extended treble. The UL takes these a considerable step further. Bass lines that were impressive to be handled with 12 watts are incredible on the UL. So much stronger control and dexterity around transitions between bass notes, the attack and decay on them, and the depth to which they go without getting flabby or loose. I typically don't listen to classical on the stereo since it's not been incredibly engaging. Not so with the UL. The bass drum pounds were startlingly real (scared my dogs) on O Fortuna and individual singers could be picked out among the choir. Classical now sounds VERY engaging and captures the ebb and flow of a symphony way more like a live performance than the Z10 could do. Illustrating the bass was instrumental to that effect and the UL does it extremely well. I had hooked up the speaker level outputs to my sub on the Z10 to get a bit more bass heft....not needed with the UL at all.
The midrange gains even more space and texture, with an effect I can only describe as almost wrapping around your head slightly rather than being projected at it. Imaging is still spot on, but the width and depth expanded by a sizeable degree. Ethereal effects and background instruments envelop and surround you like being on the front row. So much of what I (and most folks it seems) enjoy exists in how well midrange is reproduced. Voices, guitars, etc. get more real and show more of what the artist intended when it is skillfully amplified. The LTA makes it all more real and more "reach out and touch it".
The top end is airy and extended as well. No tube roll-off...even though my ears might prefer a little of that. So much clarity and space it (like other reviewers have said) makes other amps sound broken for how much noise and distortion they introduce to dull this reproduction with transformers and other noisy components. The UL (and the Z10) strip this away so effectively, it's forehead-slap inducing. I assume that as with the Z10, more break in will smooth this out even further and just get better over time.
Some other slight differences between the Z10 and UL are that the UL tubes glow a little brighter and hotter and that the UL volume control relays are a little quieter when you click the volume around.
All in all, the UL's bass and midrange performance even on my already sensitive (95db) speakers showed me that though 12 watts is "enough" with the Z10, the extra oomph provided by the different circuit and slightly higher wattage isn't insignificant and worth the audition of the UL if you have the chance.
DAC - MHDT Orchid
Source - Bluesound Node 2i streaming Spotify