In the first April's edition of High Fidelity you could read a text written by Mr Eugeniusz Czyżewski (see HERE), explaining why he created a new version of the amplifier, that Wojtek reviewed some time ago. I read all the reviews of Linear Audio Research products that had been written by Wojtek, including the review of the first version of IA-30T (see HERE), and I had always felt that I would have really liked their sound, if I only had a chance to listen to them. Well, it has finally happened, although truth to be told, probably only because I asked for the new version of this amplifier first. Possibly my boss, Wojtek, is not happy about it, but I already know it was worth it! On one hand if I had listened to the first version of IA-30T that would have given me a chance to compare it to the mk2 and to find out which aspects of the sound improved. On the other hand, knowledge of previous version would create also some particular expectations toward new, supposingly improved version – but now I had none, maybe except for an extraordinary sound.
Let's start with how it looks and how it feels. It comes really well packed, and, which is still not a standard, a nice, informative manual is attached. This device looks a lot like its predecessor – in fact it is just slightly bigger – its depth increased by 8 cm. Also the weight has changed – now the amp is heavier by 5 kg, which when it comes to tube devices, is usually a good thing – more weight equals larger/better transformers which leads to a better sound. The LAR's integrated looks... well, very nice. The casing might not be an example of such a wonderful craftsmanship as the other reviewed in April Polish amplifier, the GW Deimos is, but first of all the latter is more or less three times more expensive, and secondly the product of Klimatowo is something else, something very special, created by artists (its external design I mean). These two devices present totally different styling - IA-30T mk2 offers what I call a discrete elegance, while Deimos would look a right thing in a right place among some antiques.

I realize how most of you, dear Readers, react when you read a reviewer using: „my wife said...” reference, but this time I shall use it, as my beloved wife usually doesn't care about all the equipment I get for reviews at all, unless something catches her eye. And yes, LAR did. So what makes it so special? The design is quite simple in fact – a black casing, with a slightly different, gray-ish front panel. There is a silver stripe in the middle of the front, with both ends rounded. There are two silver knobs and two VU meters „composed” into it, plus an eye-friendly amber led. That's it, simple, right? But it works, or should I say looks really good. The VU meters in the first version displayed a level of output signal. This time it's an input signal for both channels, so we can see what amplifier gets from a source. An important thing for many potential users – that is a kids and pets friendly tube device – all tubes sit inside casing so no small hands or paws will be ever burned by touching those nicely glowing 'bulbs'. One thing some users might miss is a remote control – there is simply none, but how many top tube amplifiers have one? Very few.

SOUND

I haven't mentioned one more difference between older and new versions. The headphone output was optional in the version reviewed by Wojtek, and when installed, the port was located on the back pannel. Now it's a standard feature of the mk2, and the output is placed on the front pannel, which is also surely more convenient in everyday's use. Not much a difference? Think again – first of all, as Wojtek discovered during his test, it was a really high quality output, so why not make it one of key features instead of just option? Secondly – the first competitor for this amp that comes to mind is... Leben 300 (the whole family) famous, among other things, for its... outstanding headphone output. So just by changing option for feature, and by moving output from the back to the front Mr Czyżewski made his new product more competitive, as it now can be advertized as integrated amplifier/headphone amplifier. So as I discussed this headphone output so much here I think I should start my assessment with it, that should be only fair, right?

IA-30T Mk2 + headphones

I don't have a large collection of headphones – I have just two pairs at my disposal. Ultrasone Proline 2500 and my clear favorites, the best cans I listened to so far (to be fair there are many I never had a chance to check out) - Audeze LCD3. So you can easily understand that what I cared about mostly was how capable was LAR to drive these, which by the way is not an easy thing to do. Ever since LCD3 arrived to me from Audeze, I've been looking for the best possible, or should I say: worthy, partner for them. The Schiit Mjolnir (see HERE) was the best candidate up to day, but I still hoped I could find even a better one. That's what we, audiophiles, do – always believe that there is some better amp, source, cable an so on, and we just need to find it, right? I should mention one more thing – during Audeze review I used additionally the Entreq Konstantine 2010 headphone cable, that I truly appreciated then, and I kept it after this test (it sported a 6,5mm jack so I couldn't use it while testing a fully balanced Mjolnir). Per-Olof, the owner of Entreq, has revised range of his products recently and he upgraded headphone cables from Konstantine 2010 to a Challenger 2010, and he was kind enough to upgrade also my cable, so I could use it during this test.

I started my listening session with a non-audiophile music – it was AC/DC's Back in black album. That was no coincident – the American headphones, when properly driven, are capable of delivering incredible, powerful bass with the level of energy that allows you to feel it, not only to hear it. Also the pace&rhythm factor is a true advantage of these cans. Lets add on top something that many people perceive as a slightly dark sound, but in my book it's amazingly rich and saturated from the very top to the lowest end (!), which allows even those not so perfect recordings not to sound too bright or too rough. And one more thing these headphones do amazingly well – there is a perfect order on the soundstage – everything has its place (yes, when listening with LCD3 there is a soundstage, different, smaller than with speakers, but still). Each of these features, and all of them together make rock and rock'n'roll music sound damn good, even though nobody ever cared to record this kind of music in a way that would measure up to audiophile's criteria. Under one condition – an amplifier must be able to drive these planar magnetic cans properly, which in other words means, that it has to be able to deliver a lot of high quality current.
Having such a great cans, and potentially such a great amp to drive them with I made a rookie mistake – what can I tell you – I'm just a man. What did I do? I turned LAR on, plugged Audeze in and started to listen to AC/DC. I somehow forgot (it must have been a deceiving look of that amp) that IA-30T mk2 was a tube device, so like most of its kind, and most of class A solid-state amps it needed maybe half an hour before it started to really sing. No, it does not mean that each time when you turn this device on you loose 30 minutes – it's not that bad, it is simply not ta its best right after turning it on! At the beginning treble is slightly rolled off, midrange is not so rich as it later gets, and bass lacks a bit of a grip. Truth to be told I had a great expectations, also started with the best cans I knew and with the music that was really effected in a bad way with those initial weaknesses of a cold amp. So I was kind of disappointed at first. But after 20-30 minutes it all changed for better, much better. Taut, powerful, nicely extended (as for headphones, of course) bass with a true slam, great drive, timing, pace&rhythm – long story short – all that was needed to to play this kind of music was now there. Such an involving presentation turned out to be a bit dangerous – Audeze were quite heavy so when I started to swing my head in AC/DC's rhythms cans almost felt off my head which could end pretty bad... But you know what they say – it's better to get in danger than get bored... so obviously I enjoyed this presentation a lot and that's what matters. That's a feature of this new IA-30T version that is worth mentioning – very few tube amps are capable of keeping such a tight grip over bass notes and thus to offer that good pace&rhythm. I believe that Mjolnir delivered even bit lower bass, but in terms of a grip and richness of a bottom end LAR equaled the American, solid-state (!) competitor. There was something I learned thanks to my rookie mistake – I contacted Mr Czyżewski and told him that I wasn't satisfied with what I initially heard on my headphones and in return I was advised that if the amp lacked some juice it could be easily corrected, as the headphone output is fed from a main amplifier. So just an information – if you buy that amplifier and later you find out that it lacks some juice to drive your headphones, you don't need to buy another amp – just contact the manufacturer to learn how to deliver more power to the headphone output. On the other hand, since LAR drove Audeze LCD3 so effortlessly, it should also drive almost any other cans available on the market.

Listening to Antiphone blues using that setup was a really interesting experience. You might have noticed that I've been using this recording a lot in my tests. It seems to be a simple piece of music with just two instruments. But it is about which instruments (organs and saxophone) these are, and about the place they were recorded in (a huge church that adds a lot of ambiance perfectly caught on the recording). When you listen to it using loudspeakers that space you can 'hear', or feel is enormous, but of course it's not possible to present it all using headphones. So the question was: if not all of the space, than how much of it would be 'audible'? Would I hear all the reverberations wondering along huge, empty church walls? Would I have the same feeling of the enormous space surrounding me, that I had many times listening to this recording via speakers? Another huge challenge for this setup were organs. That's an instrument that many of, even big, speakers fail to present in a believable way, so how could (any) headphones deal with it? I remembered the power of organs when LCD3 were driven by Mjolnir - they were thunderous. When driven by LAR Audeze delivered slightly less extended bass but still with amazing energy load, with a scale that many other headphone amplifiers failed to deliver before. On the other hand I was amazed by the way this Polish amplifier dealt with space and ambiance recreation. Don't get me wrong – they couldn't do it in the same way speakers could, but the spacious, airy sound gave me at least a glimpse, a hint of that feeling of a small, small man being is a huge, huge church. I couldn’t hear it, like I could with speaker based system, but I could feel the surrounding space. A substitute? Perhaps, but the best one cans could deliver. There were also above mentioned reverberations wondering along the walls further and further away from me and I think it was probably them that gave this presentation some edge over Mjolnir's one. You could say that differences were quite subtle, but I it was LAR that really made me believe that I was sitting in that church, were recording was made. So each of these two headphone amplifiers had some advantage over the other, but what convinced me finally in favor of IA-30T mk2 was the saxophone. It sounded so natural, palpable, with a great timbre, with all the tiny details including musician's breathing. It was so small comparing to organs but its sound was clearly heard, and it was also placed closer to the listener than organs. This literally smallest part in the recording gave LAR some advantage over a very good headphones amplifier, which Mjolnir surely was.

I've spent many evenings and nights listening to a lot of different music and with each next album I liked and appreciated this setup more and more. Those of you, who read my review of Schiit Mjolnir might remember that to describe its rare ability I used a photographic comparison – I wrote that it was able to add some light to the sound of LCD3. What I meant was that since the sound of these cans was perceived sometimes as slightly dark, what Mjolnir did was adding some light to it making the sound 'less' dark, more transparent, clearer, but never ever bright. LAR delivered amazingly transparent, crystal clear sound (the previous version did it too, as Wojtek described it in his review) which combined with Audeze delivered similar effect as described above with Schiit. Sound got less dark, more detailed and transparent but was still so incredibly rich, saturated as it always was with these amazing headphones. This clarity and transparency of the sound allows you to fully appreciate fabulous resolution and selectivity of this setup. So combine LAR and Audeze together and what you get is a top quality sound – dense but with great resolution, liquid, fast but very rich, coherent over the whole range, and with both range extremes that nobody would ever guessed come from a tube device, as there is no sign of roll-off.

As already mentioned, I don't have vast collection of different cans, as Wojtek does, which prevented me from trying each of them with LAR to make sure it could drive all of them. I had to settle with the two models I had, but since it drove quite a challenging load – Audeze LCD3 – so well, I guess it could deal with most of the headphones equally well. I tried it of course also with much less costly Ultrasone Proline 2500, that also delivered totally different sound – much brighter, sometimes almost rough unless you partner it with a proper amp. IA-30T mk2 supported these with its dense, rich sound, especially in the midrange and treble, where Ultrasone needed support most and together they delivered fast, tuneful sound with a taut bass, very good pace&rhythm, that allowed me to enjoy all the music I threw at this set. So even though I couldn't actually check LAR with wide range of cans I assumed that it was capable of delivering really good performance with at least many if not most of them. I would be interested to check if it could drive properly even more demanding, than LCD3, headphones from Himalayan – the HE-6 model. It's worth a try as these are also fabulous headphones. [I will try to borrow this amplifier from Mr Eugeniusz and check myself as I have HE-6 at my disposal – WP]

IA-30T Mk2 + loudspeakers

Linear Audio Research IA-30T mk2 is most of all a tube integrated amplifier designed to drive speakers, so it's about time for me to start assessing its primary function. During this test I used two pairs of speakers – I still had the amazing Ardento Alter, that their designer, Mr Tomasz, lent me again for couple of months (thank you again!), and of course my own Bastanis Matterhorn.
The former of these two pairs, which is objectively better and surely more difficult to drive, allowed LAR to show its true potential. At the begining I was trying hard to find one, single feature of this amp's sound, that could characterize it, but I couldn't find it. Simply there is no single feature, there are couple of them and only together they make its sound so special. First of all it delivers full range sound, top to bottom equally good – and we have to remember that this is relatively inexpensive tube amplifier, which usually means that the treble is slightly rolled off, and the bottom is at least rounded. Usually when it comes to a tube amp from a price range below 10 kPLN you can easily tell, what's its strongest virtue – it's midrange, that might be even really good, but it comes at a cost. It is usually accompanied with a rounded bass that lacks proper grip, and a rolled of treble that lacks some spark. But not in this case – the frequency response seems to be almost flat top to bottom, sound is coherent, smooth, and rich. The AC/DC album, I started my listening sessions with, sounded in many aspect as good as on Audeze before, but now I was served with even more power, more energy and all that delivered with even more ease. LAR drove and controlled the 15'' woofers nicely, keeping a tight grip over them, producing a thunderous slam when needed, and neatly driving a proper rhythm. This time I noticed also amazing clarity of the midrange, that allowed me to actually clearly understand what Brian Jonson was singing. That guy can sing – no doubts about it, but understanding what exactly is he signing is.. quite a challenge (at least for a non-native speaker). LAR not only nicely delivered the way Brian sang, but also made what he sang an important part of this rock'n'roll ravel (not that I think AC/DC's texts are very ambitious ones, but are often fun).
I continued my 'rock adventure' with some Pink Floyd, and Roger Waters recordings only to find out that also in these LAR kept a very good grip over bass, delivering fast attack when needed, but also stopping and damping a note immediately on other occasions. Even though I did not listen to the previous version of this amp but my best guess is that Mr Czyżewski managed to eliminate the weakness Wojtek mentioned in his review when he wrote that LAR's bass lacked some weight and richness. I'm guessing that, because not even for a second I thought about complaining about these aspects of the sound. As I mentioned already bass in this version is fast and taut but it doesn't come at a cost of its richness and weight, which would probably be easy to do (from designer's point of view). Kick drum, for example, has proper slam, you can not only hear but also feel the electric and electronically generated bass, and all that even though LAR doesn't (I think) go as far down with its bass, as some solid-states do.

Bass obviously is not the only advantage of this amplifier, but when you get such a good one from a tube device it is bit surprising and surely worth elaborating on. LAR is able to compete in this area with many solid-state amplifiers from the same price range and the complement couldn't get much better than this. Still, great bottom doesn't change the fact that, as expected from tube device, also midrange is outstanding. I was absolutely mesmerized when listening to many vocals that sounded almost like when presented by my own 300B SET – emotional, sensual, pure, with texture and timbre delivered up to every tiny, little detail. All that made most voices so natural and palpable that when I closed my eyes I just saw vocalists standing right in front of me. Each voice had its depth, strength and was delivered with this whole emotional loading that reaches out to listeners soul, touches it directly and makes him forget about everything else except for mesmerizing voice of Etta James, Eva Cassidy and any other. Especially when it came to very powerful, 'huge' and passionate voices like the one of Etta James, or a totally different, but equally impressive one of a the late Luciano Pavarotti, I truly appreciated the ease and the authority and conviction they were delivered with. Etta and Luciano came from a totally different worlds but both had something in common: great passion and great power in their voices, and there are not that many amplifiers capable of showing that in a proper scale. But LAR did – the dynamics and 'ease' were delivered without any limitation, making this presentation amazingly natural and realistic, which of course I witnessed before but usually with amplifiers with couple of more zeros on their price tags. Yes, that was unexpected, and yes I was amazed, as that was a level of performance (in this aspect) of, for example, more than 4 times more expensive Ayon Crossfire (one of my favorite amps), and a device that was clearly, significantly better – the Kondo Souga I reviewed for our 'Japanese' (May) issue, cost more than a very nice car.

Fans of acoustic music should not be worried, regardless of which music genre they prefer they shouldn't be disappointed. I truly loved very natural sound of string instruments, all of them – guitar, bass, violin or any other. A perfect example of how well IA-30T mk2 performed was an astonishing, LIM's K2HD issue of Pepe Romero's Flamenco. It's a classic flamenco – just guitars, singing and dancing, which in this case is clearly audible as the vigorous stamping of dancers feet was extremely well caught on the recording. When listening to this album I usually crank the volume up a lot, up to a level when I start feeling, and not just hearing the stamping. It was most impressive spectacle that LAR created together with Alter speakers – on one hand there were very natural, convincing guitars and characteristic voices shown in a precise, palpable way, and on the other there was a 'fire' and 'thunder' coming from under the feet of dancers who danced vigorously on the wooden floor. What is most important when playing this album are the proper proportions between all elements – the sounds of feet stamping on the wooden floor should not overwhelm the sounds of guitars and voice, all these elements create the most impressive presentation only when each of them plays its, equally important, role. And if they do you shall sit in front of your system with your jaw dropped on the floor wondering how your system in your not so big room could deliver such a huge, powerful sound?!

I've mentioned in the first part of this text how organic, clear and tuneful the sound of Arne Domnerus saxophone was, but now I also loved the delicacy of Miles Davis trumpet, or a very different, vigorous one of Louis Armstrong. Both were so real, so convincing I could swear I could reach out and touch them. Having such a good sounding amplifier I couldn't miss an opportunity to play my favorite tunes with bass 'operated' by skilful hands of Ray Brown and Renauld Garcia Fons. As you have probably already guessed I loved it! Lively, tuneful, rich sound, well extended at the low end, with fast attack and wonderful decay, with proper amount of 'wood' in the sound – a convincing reminder of why I love to listen to this instrument so much (not that I really needed such a reminder). Another amazing experience was a session with famous Keith Jarret's Koeln concert. I just sat there on my couch and there was nothing in this world that could have distracted me from absorbing each and every note of this fabulous music. The piano was so vibrant, and LAR was able to deliver its full power and dynamic scale, but it did not forget about Keith singing, or rather murmuring, either. On top of all that there was a wonderful reproduction of the concert hall's ambiance that made this presentation simply complete and one of a kind!

And last but not least, I listened to some electronic music – the outstanding soundtrack from Blade Runner written by Vangelis, and than also some albums of Andreas Vollenweider. So have I found finally something to complain about, you probably ask? Well... not really. IA-30T mk2 handles this kind of music pretty well too – it easily delivers short, taut bass, which is often used in electronic music, that starts immediately and than it is equally fast stopped and the amplifier has to stop the woofer in a matter of friction of second. It all lead to a conclusion already formed before – there is only one thing I could, if I had to, call some sort of weakness of this integrated amplifier – the absolutely lowest bass. But is it a serious weakness? Only if you are a fan of organ music, or maybe some electronic one. In any other music you won't even realize that something is missing (not missing – gently rolled off at the very bottom). I haven't notice anything missing listening to Vangelis, nor Vollenweider which means you need to try hard to find this weakness, but since I praised LAR a lot I had to add at least one weakness, even if it was rather theoretical one...

Summary

Linear Audio Research IA-30T mk2 is an amazing device. Not knowing its price, or that it was designed and made in Poland I would have guessed that its price was much, much higher. And even if the price was twice as big as it is I would still claim that it was a bargain (although than it would be recommended to compare it head to head with Leben CS-300 XS). Surely there are better, offering even more sophisticated sound, amplifiers on the market. But what Mr Czyżewski did creating this device that could offer such a coherent, rich and refined sound and selling it for just 9 kPLN is an outstanding achievement! LAR does some things in a way you'd never expect for a relatively inexpensive tube amplifier – both range extremes are nicely extended – there is a taut, slammy bass and there is a grip you'd expect from a solid state, not tube (one condition of course – it has to drive some loudspeakers that are not too difficult to drive), and there is also this vibrant, crisp treble. The description above doesn't mean that manufacturer forgot about tube's prime domain – midrange. It is as good as both extremes – rich, dense, smooth, colorful, but unlike in many other inexpensive tube devices, there is not emphasis on this part of the range. This impressive coherence of the whole range, smoothness, musicality, naturalness of the sound make acoustic music and vocals sound like from a very good SET amp. The fans of rock, or electronic music shouldn't have any reason to complain either – there is an impressive dynamics (in both macro and micro scale), good saturation throughout the whole range, pace&rhythm, tide, powerful bass, openness and vibrancy of the treble and, especially considering the price tag, amazing clarity of the sound. Is there anything you might still want? No? But there is one more thing – equally amazing headphone output fully capable of driving Audeze LCD3 cans. After this whole experience I now fully understand why Wojtek liked the previous version so much, and it looks like this mk2 is even better. If you have some loudspeakers with reasonable sensitivity and rather friendly impedance curve don't hesitate – get LAR for audition, especially if you look for an amp within 15 kPLN range, or maybe even bit higher. There was this popular slogan some time ago, used by many of our manufacturers, that said: „it's good because it's Polish” Well the Linear Audio Research IA-30T mk2 really is, no doubt about it!!!

DESIGN

LAR IA-30T mk2 is a new, improved version of the amplifier that's been on the marked for couple of years now. It's a dual-mono, tube integrated amplifier, with active preamplifier stage. A solid, rigid casing (except for a front pannel) was made of sheets of a non-magnetic steel. It's bit bigger comparing to previous version – its depth is now 8cm bigger to make additional space for larger transformers. To increase casing's rigidity designer added a crossbar inside, and the top cover is no fixed also to this crossbar. The casing is made of two halfs – upper, which is a cover with a grid that helps to keep the inside's temperature at bay, and a lower one that holds the whole circuit. Another new elements are the side wooden bars, that sit exactly where to top and bottom of the casing come together (although these are fixed to the lower half so the upper one easily goes off after unscrewing some screws). The front of the device is finished with some special lacquer and it looks a lot like in the original version. What makes it different from most designs is a rounded at both ends silver stripe with two VU meters (showing input signal level for each channel) and two knobs (volume control and on/off switch and input selector at the same time) 'composed' into it. The only obvious difference is a headphone output placed below input selector. That is also one of the key differences between older and new version – previously headphone output was optional, added upon customer's request, and now it's a standard feature. One more difference – when headphone output was optional it was installed in the back pannel of the amplifier, now it is a part of a front pannel, which is surely more convenient for everyday's use.
The main difference on the back pannel is one input less (4 instead of 5). Mr Czyżewski decided to change RCA sockets for higher quality ones coming from Neutrik, and he also left now more space around each pair, which allows user to connect even interconnects with large plugs. The solid, universal speakers binding are exactly the same as used in the first version. There are no separate outputs for speakers with different impedances. Apart from linear inputs there is also an output (pre-out) that allows to use two separate amplifiers in bi-amping configuration. For those who possess difficult to drive speakers, LAR recommends using IA-30T mk2 to drive midrange and treble, and the other, more powerful amp, IA-120, to drive bass woofers. The pre-out allows IA-30T mk2 to control volume level of both units in bi-amping config. On the right side of the back pannel there is power inlet, with a fuse and main on/off switch. The casing sports four solid, nice looking feet.

It is a dual mono design with separate power transformers for each channel. There are two transformer (power and output) bolted to each side pannel – that means there are more of them than in the previous version and that required a larger casing, and that's also mostly behind weight increase by 5 kg. There are also two smaller power transformers feeding input selector, circuit controlling VU meters, and relays that turn the main power supply on.
First version sported EL34 (penthodes) power tube. This time Mr Eugeniusz chose to use four 6CA7 (beam tetrodes), two per channel, working in a ultra-linear mode in push-pull configuration. Signal delivered from inputs goes to the first gain stage with two E80CC triodes, that are fed voltage from two solid-state voltage regulators and there are no coupling capacitors here! The Blue Alps is used for volume control and finally signal goes to output stage with 6CA7 power tubes and than to speakers posts.