We first came across LAB12 when we visited their stand at the Newcomers to Munich High-End 2013 and were really impressed with their attitude to design. Since then they have expanded their portfolio of kit to include:

The Pre 1

Actually this was the first product that LAB12 came out with and it looks to be an intersting product on paper. It’s a solid-state/valve (tube) hybrid using a pair of E88CC valves and a four stage power supply in a a dual mono confuguration.

hpa Headphone Amplifier

The hpa is both a preamplifier and an OTL (valve/Tube) headphone amplifier where 6N1P tubes are used. There are two analogue inputs and a USB direct input on offer and a pre amplifier out pair of RCAS.

Dac1

With the name really giving this one away this is a DAC. In fact it’s a non-oversampling DAC using  8 matched parallel Phillips TDA1543 in what LAB12 say is a “sophisticated configuration and output through a Dual triode tube I/V stage. It has six regulated power supplies and a USB input and a special edition is also available.

True

True is a passive preamplifier with three line inputs which uses a Blue Velvet ALPS pot’ and has an input impedence of 50k and an output impedence of 0-50K

Knack

The Knack from LAB12 is their power chord using 3x 6mm double insulated, tinned pure copper conductors (all stranded), with a steel shield for live and neutral conductors and all inside a braided polyester (PET) sleeve.