This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

If you revisit the linked reviews carefully you will see that I did my best to remain objective and point out little weaknesses with the Air. My conclusion in prinicple was that the best sources both digital and analogue remain capable of delivering even richer deeper sound. But don't get me wrong. Ancient Audio’s player was great, outclassing all others at its price level. It simply could not compete against more expensive ones as the Prime had many times before. This proved to me how Jarek Waszczyszyn's competitors had made huge progress over the years. Still there remains room for improvement even amongst top-level digital decks.

I was thus really surprised when I started listening to the new Air in the standard version, the one that will be delivered to customers. It sounded different than my ‘first’ Air. Surely its sonic signature was similar but it sounded a class better, perhaps even two. But eventually the sound of the fully broken-in V-Edition Air has matured—-and that's the upside of small manufacturers whose designs never need to be set in stone and may be improved after some time—to be extremely deep and smooth. What bothered me initially, namely that it wasn't rich and full enough especially in the lower midrange; and that cymbals were not tangible enough against the best turntables... all this ironed out. Yet those changes didn't make the Air's sonic signature similar to the conceptually related Loit for example.


Compared to the new Air, the Passeri sounds a bit colored. Although midrange amplitude and timbre are similar, the Air delivers a more natural sound - one that's closer to what I know from my studio recording experience, closer to analogue tape. I would call this sound ‘totally analogue’ but what I really mean is the sound you get from tape rather than vinyl. Although in my opinion still the best medium for music, vinyl has its own problems which are not shared by tape.

The Air's sound is quite soft but without any transient blurring or warmth. It's more about an extremely three-dimensional sound. The ability to show the precise location of all on-stage sound sources, the spaces between them, the acoustic ambiance around them and wonderful timbres is truly unique not only for a digital player (CD at that) but for any source.

I think its secret lies in its inner coherence. I mentioned that aspect from time to time reviewing different components but never before did 'coherence' so precisely describe what I felt. It's this level of coherence which defines this player's core nature for audiophiles. Never before did I get something like it from digital save perhaps with the Grand SE and Soulution 745. The best turntables surely achieve it but they are analogue devices. They should. If they don’t there must be something wrong with a particular turntable. When it comes to digital players this quality is very scarce and only rarely achieved with HD files or SACD but even then not too often.


I'm not really sure how to describe the sound of this machine on a whole. It seems very even throughout. I could risk saying the midrange is a bit stronger than the treble but I can't really tell for sure. Other decks with a stronger treble usually are too annoying for my taste. But I might be right. The best turntables also sound this way whilst adding even more detail and air. The Grand SE can reach deeper yet into a recording to be ultimately more revealing. Having said that, I think both are equally consistent about delivering the most from any CD.


Dynamic range here seems just right. There is no exaggeration, nothing is missing and there is no unnatural scaling up or down. To add some perspective I can say that both the Accuphase DP-700 I reviewed for Audio and the Soulution 745 have slightly more averaged dynamics to feel more relaxed.

The Air V-Edition’s most obvious advantage over almost any other digital source is its amazing soundstage. It's really deep. It is wide too left to right but that's a far more common trait offered by many other good players. The Air simply delivers an incredibly deep soundstage which wouldn't be possible without remarkable resolution. Images are shown very precisely without cutting them out of the background. They never become a central element of the musical spectacle but instead direct attention at what else is happening on the stage.

What’s most important is the sheer pleasure and comfort listening this player delivers and enables. I really can't say the same about too many other machines. Most, even the very good ones, attract the listener's attention to themselves by way of specific technical aspects which divert attention away from the most important thing, the music. The latter must always come first or nothing else makes any sense. The Lektor Air is not the best player in the world as I know some—very few—which are still superior in both digital and analogue realms.

However, what its designer has managed to achieve and how he put all the elements together is amazing to make for a brilliantly finished product. I do realize how the audio business is about constant development and exploration of new possibilities. But in the here and now, at 11:12AM, I would call this is a perfectly thought-out and wrapped-up project. I suspect that it will be enhanced again in the future but I hope that no achievement of the present version will have to be sacrificed in the name of any specific aspect. I love it as it is now.

Another important thing is that it plays every kind of music equally well. Its advantages remain the same. Any recorded flaw of the recording is always shown clearly because this very revealing device differentiates small details amazingly well. In the end it simply works like the best turntables do which always manage to sound natural. This means that we accept any recording as is. While we realize the existence of flaws, our perception treats them as mere subordinate elements of a bigger picture. As such they remain natural. Attacks are always fresh and fast, the soundstage is extremely precise yet the overall gestalt seems to be on the soft side. How is this possible? I don't know. To be honest I don't really care.

I could go on and on. I had a lot of time to listen to this player. But enough is enough. What I wanted to get across is that the Air ensures comfortable listening to your favorite music. Here comfortable encompasses each and every sense of the word. This is a very revealing machine that won't mask any recorded flaw yet manages to extract the music from each and every album. The sound is very coherent throughout, with perhaps a gentle emphasis on a softer midrange. The bass is well extended and differentiated like the best turntables. The virtual images are still not as three-dimensional as they are with vinyl or the Lektor Grand SE but these differences are no longer significant.


The integrated preamplifier here is far better than it had been in the Prime. Although the best preamps deliver still bigger images with more body, the fact that we get this one as a bonus is simply outstanding. The only real shame is that this version still lacks a digital input which has almost become de rigueur these days. But there is a strong possibility that such an input will soon be an option. Each current Air already includes an internal connector for such a module. There is a huge demand for DACs today. The lack of one—or a CD player which might be used as a DAC—is very surprising in Ancient Audio's present portfolio.