The Linear Tube Audio Z10e
I hope you can tell how grateful I am to be writing a column every month. A column makes me feel like a reporter or raconteur, both of which I aspire to become. In a column, I can be more me. I can evolve, think out loud, and speculate, right in front of you. I can pass on crazy stories from a lifetime of audio. When I write about products in a Dream, I try not to form it as a review, per se, but rather as an informal chronicle of discovery.
This month’s chronicle is about a unique product I’ve been anxious to explore since I encountered it at last year’s Capital Audiofest: Linear Tube Audio’s all-tube Z10e integrated amplifier/headphone amplifier/electrostatic headphone amplifier ($6950).
Like the LTA Z10 integrated amplifier from which it morphed, the Z10e is built around a David Berning–designed push-pull output-transformer-less (OTL) EL84 tube power amplifier that is rated at 10Wpc/8 ohms and 12Wpc/4 ohms. Whereas LTA’s regular Z10 is a genuine full-function tube integrated amplifier with five linelevel inputs, a tape monitor loop, and 0.25" front-panel headphone outputs, the Z10e is a distilled, shape-shifted version of the Z10, designed to appeal to today’s new breed of headphone collector-connoisseurs.
The Z10e retains the Z10’s HI- and LO-power headphone outputs but has only three line-level inputs and no tape loop. It adds a five-pin, 580V-energized Stax electrostatic headphone output—hence the “e” designation. That’s a huge deal.
“A single component solution,” says the LTA website, “the Z10e incorporates the acclaimed ZOTL10 power amplifier, a Berning-designed preamplifier, and the LTA control system with three inputs [one balanced XLR, two single-ended RCA]—all packaged in a beautiful aluminum low-resonance case designed by [Virginia-based audio company] Fern
