In 2004 Cracow manufacturer «Ancient Audio» build Lektor Grand CD player, the first ever player made up of three separate pieces: a unique CD transport and accompanying DAC mono blocks. Highly advanced digital signal transmission technology in line with a thorough knowledge of tube and analogue layout designing resulted in extraordinary sound reproduction and has been enjoying the renown ever since. It was the Lektor Grand project that made it possible for Lektor Grand to become a leading manufacturer of digital sound reproducers.
In the meantime Lektor Grand went through a complete internal upgrade that lead up to its SE version, once again, setting an ultimate level of excellence and a benchmark for other ambitious projects irrespective of price. Following the success of Lector Grand and its breakthrough concepts a new integrated versions hit the market a few years after Lektor Grand premiere. It turned out to be most frequently bought Ancient Audio CD player due to its outstanding sound reproduction, analogue inputs and reasonable price tag.
The Lektor Air on show, was designed to be a more advanced version of Lektor Prime at first, however, it developed far beyond the tentative project assumptions. Despite its similar looks to Lektor Prime it is a different construction having much more in common with Lektor Grand design, the most important of which is an extremely accurate and precise low jitter (3ps) master clock manufactured by Tent Labs :
Power supply, similar to flagship model, has got separate power transformers feeding CD transport and the audio part respectively :
Both the idea of DAC, vacuum tube output stage and Teflon / Tin foil V-caps is taken from the reference model :
Also output capacitors are world-famous oil impregnated V-caps :
Lektor Air applies CD-Pro2 LF die-cast metal mechanism:
All Lektors, except for The Grand One, are of integrated nature with a valve preamplifier. The Air Lektor like other integrated constructions has got analog input for the line level signal sources.
A new facility applied to The Air Lektor is an expansion slot for digital input modules. It will make it possible in future to apply digital input (such as S/P DIF, AES/EBU, USB) and utilize The Lektor Air as state of the art outboard DAC for music servers, computers, etc.
The sound signature is a natural development of the Ancient Audio sound with its lively and natural aspects devoid of digital glare with lots of «air» and 3-D presentation (depth, height, width) and live music acoustics. All these quality of presentation account for the name of this CD model – THE AIR.
Tangibility of musical events and its focusing makes a music presentation a breathtaking event. All this being coupled with unprecedented dynamic contrasts and spectacular «imaging» of silence which from being underestimated aspect in music is brought forward as an equal part of any musical presentation.
Features:
- Famous metal CD mechanism : CD-Pro2 LF
- Ultra-low jitter Tent Labs master clock
- Silver DAC III
- V-Cap TFTF teflon/tin foil capacitors
- V-Cap OIMP oil impregnated output capacitors
- Fully balanced signal path
- Fist-order analogue filter
- 100 dB range analogue volume control
- Auxiliary analogue input
- Expansion slot for future digital input module
- Silver ribbon internal wiring
- Separate power transformers for CD transport and audio electronics
- Low impedance tube stage with Sovtek 6H30
- Natural stone finish
- Non-resonant sandwich granite base
- Dimensions: ( W x H x D) : 350 x 350 x 70 mm
