  LL1.1 Signature |   |
LL1.1 SIGNATURE Double Mono Line Level Preamplifier
The monaural line level preamplifier model LL1.1 Signature is a direct replacement of the LL1 Signature which has been the ultimate statement of perfection among the line level LAMM preamplifiers since its introduction in 2010. The LL1.1 proudly continues this tradition. Although the LL1 Signature integrated everything its designer had at his disposal to make it the best-sounding preamplifier, a true creator never rests on his laurels. There is always a yearning to do better even though it seems unrealistic at the time. The LL1.1 Signature is an end result of this yearning.
The preamplifier contains four very linear low impedance triodes paralleled into a single inverting gain stage.
The LL1.1 Signature employs a pure single-ended class A operation, with no overall feedback applied. Also featured are specially selected high-transconductance dual triodes 6N30P-EB/ 6Н30П-EB in the signal path and TKD stepped potentiometers for volume control — the best available on today’s market.
The preamplifier’s audibly neutral power supply features a full-wave vacuum rectifier. This rectifier, together with a choke-containing filter, allows to practically get rid of the hum and buzz and, in the end, to ensure the verity of dynamic range without coloration. Two solid-state analog voltage regulators supply dc voltage to the tube filaments (heaters).
| Pure class A, single-stage zero feedback design, providing the shortest signal path possible. |
| Four low internal impedance (about 800 Ohms per triode!) very linear medium-mu duo triodes are connected in parallel, thus minimizing the internal noise of the preamplifier and ensuring the unprecedentedly low output impedance for this type of topology. |
| High-current drive capability, in combination with unique single-ended class A circuitry, assure the preamplifier’s capability to drive any cable and any real world load, while maintaining its practically inaudible sonic signature. |
| Specially designed damping panel installed in the LL1.1 Signature preamplifier effectively isolates all sensitive electronic components from any induced resonances. |
| Absolutely outstanding signal-to-noise ratio makes the LL1.1 Signature one of the quietest line-stage preamplifiers available on the market. Design is unique to LAMM INDUSTRIES, INC. |
| Tube Complement Preamplifier: four (eight) 6N30P-EB / 6H30П-EB, first (single) amplification stage. |
| Tube Complement Power Supply: two (four) 6X4, rectifier tubes. |
What Reviewer have said:
Positive Feedback:
“Texture and timbre are sooo satisfying—sweet, but not overdone—and the LL1.1 imbues every instrument with its own sound and dynamic action. This is not a trivial matter. The Lamm is far ahead of the vast majority of preamps in terms of credibility. The midrange is clear; the treble is extended and so fully integrated as to pass unnoticed (just like with other Lamm gear), only when low frequencies come along there is more of it, a lot more.”
Marshall Nack / Positive Feedback Issue 93 -2017
Stereophile:
“After many weeks of listening to the LL1, using several dozen recordings I’d heard many times before, I found three areas in which the Lamm LL1 Signature significantly exceeded the performance of any other tubed line stage I’d heard:
1) A sense of unfettered, dynamic ease and drama indistinguishable from live music: I’ve heard many preamps that can reproduce fff passages without compression or smearing. The LL1 went a step further. No matter how complex the music, I never got the sense that the Lamm was working hard to reproduce the complex waveforms. It reproduced the crashing dramatic climaxes of orchestral warhorses with the same relaxed quality as it did a solo flute. ….
2) Clean, crisp, uncolored, fast, deep, gut-slamming bass: Remember the old days, when everyone thought that tube preamps’ bass was inferior to that of solid-state? Ha! The LL1 demonstrated to me that every other component in my system is capable of reproducing deeper, more authoritative bass than I’d ever heard from it before. …
3) The ability to render each instrument within its own dynamic envelope: In Louis Andriessen’s De Tijd, with Reinbert De Leeuw conducting the Schönberg Ensemble (CD, Elektra Nonesuch 79291-2), a dissonant backwash of sustained strings runs through the entire work. Sudden percussion transients emerge from a foundation of strings, then retreat into the background. Through the LL1, the effect was like the dolphins at Sea World leaping into the air for fish, then quickly submerging. …
The LL1 had many other strengths. Its ability to render linear gradations of low-level dynamic articulation by small, well-recorded jazz groups let me feel as if I were sitting next to the performers onstage. …
The LL1 Signature was also able to unravel an extraordinary amount of detail, which made it easy to analyze the minutiae of recordings. …
Finally, in its detailed and uncolored midrange and highs, the Lamm LL1 had all the strengths I would want in and expect from a cost-no-object tubed preamp. All voices sounded clean, tactile, and liquid….
Highs were clean, crisp, and extended, with perfectly articulated transients.
Rober J.Reina / Stereophile 2014