Linear Tube Audio Aero

This paragraph from Linear Tube Audio's website description of their new Aero DAC sets the tone for the story I'm about to tell.

- HERB REICHERT

"After trying various options, we chose the Analog Devices AD1865 R2R DAC chip, which is sometimes called the 'vinyl DAC,' for its organic sound. It is a non-oversampling DAC, with no digital filters. The AD1865 is much-loved by audiophiles and is used by at least one hifi company in a flagship DAC costing over $150,000."

Check the forums and you find that the AD1865 chip is also a heavy DIY favorite. Home brewers are attracted to this discontinued, "obsolete" 18-bit chip for its easy implementation and unprocessed, musicfriendly sound.

Manufacturers of luxurypriced DACs love it, too. They don't mind that it's discontinued; they've already bought thousands of chips. The main thing they care about is that it sounds conspicuously musical and engaging. I've listened at length to at least three wellknown, very expensive DACs that use this chip, and I would describe their pleasures as the type favored by long-playing record collectors. I'm friends with the designer of one of these "luxury-priced obsolete-chip DACs," and when I asked him why he chose the AD1865, he told me, "We tried all the others, and this one sounded the most right."

"After trying various options," LTA owner-founder Mark Schneider and his Aero design team-Will Schneider-White, Tony N. Nguyen, and Jacob Knibb-apparently came to the same conclusion, but I think they thought they could do "most right" better at a lower cost than those luxury DAC sellers.

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