Lead Audio DAC LA-100
Relatively inexpensive, physically limited DA-converters keep on flooding onto the hi-fi market place. I've been privileged to audion quite a many of them from the cheapest ones (FireSTone, Kingrex etc.etc.) to over DACs over the 1000 euro benchmark (Benchmark, Hegel, etc.) and even some of the most prestigious ones.
Lead Audio is a new actor in the field of digital product manufacturing but its head designer isn't. Søren Mac Larsen has more than 25 years of experience and knowledge of digital circuit design (digital algorithms in amps, CD players, room correction gear).
The less than 400 euro LA-100 DAC/Headphone Amp is the company's first audio product. One of the design goals was to to satiate the needs of those who cannot stand noise and distortion of cheap CD/DVD players as well as PC sound cards - such as the one in this laptop - resulting in bad sound quality.
Lead Audio claims the use of audio parts that are found in more expensive hi-fi products. Those are eg. the 192kHz/24bit upsampling Burr Brown PCM 1796 DA converter, Wima condensers for the power supply (a series and a shunt design); circuits designed using Denmark's high tech noise reduction know-how (Collpitts oscillator, 2-step buffering clock); effective sample rate converting techniques for jitter reduction; DC coupled output circuits (ie. no capacitors in series with the analog signal path); better than the NE5532/34 analog opamps.
The front panel is made of aluminum, and the interface was realized through the use of microcontrollers. They're small but handy: the input/output mode can be fully manipulated using the keys on the front. The external case was built using aluminum and SCP.
The DAC LA-100 sports three inputs: USB, SPDIF Optical and Coaxial. The USB accepts 44-48kHz data but is upgradabel to higher sampling frequencies. The SPDIF will take in anything between 20kHz and 216kHz. The rest of the specs are as follows: THD at 1KH: <0.001%; S/N Ratio: >120dB(A weighting); Jitter: <100ps (ASR); Headphone Output Level: max. 3.6V RMS in 600ohm, max. 0.5V RMS in 32ohm(zout = 25ohm); Power Consumption: <5W.
My PC laptop had no problems with connecting with the LA-100 - no driver download needed. There was one problem though: the line output level of the LA-100 is 1V RMS max. (600R Load) instead of the 'standard' 2 volts. This prevented me from making immediate comparisons by swicthing between the inputs; the volume needed to be adjusted as well. But this was only a minor hindrance.
Sound quality - then and now
My listening strategy with the outboard DACs is not to exhaust my stock of adjectives for the often desparate effort of describing their sonic characteristics. My approach is simply to compare the DACs to something that I know well, namely my own Sentec Di-Ana DAC, and that with respect to a few preselected variables.
What I liked about the LA-100 was the so called "dark background" no matter how ambiguous the term may be. It's the sort of quality I associate with better than the average DACs and CD players. What I mean by the "dark background" in this particular case is that the LA-100 seemed to create conditions under which the sound got good "depth" and "weight" it didn't have without it. Depth and weight not in terms of the soundstage or imaging but in terms of music/sound, how meaningful I felt the music was. This was the feature I liked most with the LA-100. As if there were an extra layer of quality in the sound.
The LA-100 also appeared to be fast in transients, sharp in attacks, accurate in the bass. It seemed to convey nicely music's wide dynamics. At times the LA-100 appeared to be slightly edgy timbre-wise but even in this respect it was mostly correct. These observations apply to the signal coming both via the SPDIF and USB inputs. And it applies to higher than the cd resolution data.
As said, I've reviewed dozens of DACs like this little Lead Audio. This was the first time I was really tempted to check how far the current DACs have come in their sonic performance from the DACs of the mid 1990s such as my Sentec Di-Ana with old but still respectable DA chips by Burr Brown. That means more than 15 years of development. Back then nobody knew anything about hd tracks of the internet, hardly SACD and certainly not about Blue Ray.
First off, there's hardly any doubt that the LA-100, just like my beloved Di-Ana, improves the sound quality of a basic DVD player like my Denon 1710. It simply brings another gear to the performance. Many people who've got nothing to do with hi-fi - who would care less - have heard the difference with the Di-Ana, and I'm sure they'd say the same with the LA-100. And I would personally defend the difference in front of any scientific committee. But what if the LA-100 is set against the Di-Ana from the last millenium (Magnepan 1.7 as the loudspeaker)?
I think you guess what I'm going to say. Would I throw my DAC to the sea after having heard the LA-100? Of course, not. Di-Ana is a perfectly valid DAC even by today's high digital standards. I cannot find a single reason why I could or should not listen to music with it. It provides a fully acceptable sound in regard to many aspects of the sound.
But which one would I choose if only one were possible? The answer is I don't know. Deep down I know should take the LA-100, simply because it's technically more advanced. But not only that. It was a tad faster in transients, sharper in attacks, better in the bass. It was more dynamic than my DAC, which was systematically a little softer, and had little less edginess. The LA-100 had more clarity, more focus and a better, more airy and 3D soundstage. But the margin is surprisingly small given all the work done with DACs (and new DA chips) during past 15 years to get the digital signal sound right. This may have something to do with the fact that digitally everything tends to sound alike despite the differences whereas in the analogue domain (vilyl, FM radio) there's more sonic diversity.
I should choose the Lead Audio LA-100, not because it's a modern DAC but because it's a good DAC. But I wouldn't be lost if I kept my own Di-Ana. Just wonder how long this state of affairs will continue?
Lead-Audio LA-100 DAC, 379 euros.