The Level One mZ preamp I bought a year ago has been a great addition to my system. I gave it a superlative review. It brought my system ever closer to the “Magic” I am looking for in my music room. As soon as I found out about the upgrade I was on the phone making arrangements to get mine upgraded. The Level One stands on its own for being a world-class preamp. Dead quiet, quick, smooth, sweet (with some tube rolling) describe this fine piece.
Even though I know that audio memory is at its best is subject to all kinds of shortcomings. I was just totally caught off guard by what I heard right out of the box. As soon as I got home from the trip down to LTA in
Takoma Park, MD, to pick up my upgraded microZOTL preamp, I set it up for a quick listen. The Level one microZOTL was quite a bit more musical than my original preamp (un-obtainable scratch DIY build), but this upgrade unit far surpassed the stock unit.
LTA told me they burn in every piece for a few days to make sure the unit is stable and that the caps are well on their way to forming up. So out of the box, and cold the sound was just superb.
How can a new power supply and output caps make everything ten feet deeper and wider than before? I am not just talking about bass but depth of image, not just behind the speakers but there is no floor either. There is an iron fist grip on the bass that I have never heard before in my house.
I let the system play all night without the power amp on and the next day it just went deeper. The LTA was always quiet but now it is like somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn quiet.