Lichtlaerm Audio Aquaria

The Lichtlaerm Audio Aquaria is a transparent overdrive, clean boost and EQ pedal in one box, built by the Austrian maker Lichtlaerm Audio. Its circuit is a rework of the original Klon Centaur, which the maker says was matched against a genuine Golden Klon during development, and it extends that familiar platform with a blendable clipping stage and a four-band active EQ on a second footswitch¹.

The pedal is laid out as two channels. The main overdrive channel carries the Klon-style gain, tone and blend controls, plus a Dynamics knob that shifts the clipping character. The second channel, engaged by its own footswitch, adds a boost and a four-band active EQ with a separate Master Volume, so the Aquaria can serve as a drive, a clean boost and a tone-shaping tool at once¹.

The controls

The Aquaria V2 carries ten controls across its two channels, split five and five. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, who reviewed the pedal at length, lists them as follows²:

What each main-channel control does, as the maker describes it¹:

• Gain: The gain structure blends in more clean signal as you turn the gain up, so higher settings stay more open rather than collapsing into compression.
• Dynamics: Blends between the smooth, compressed saturation of the germanium diodes, which the maker calls the "magic" diodes, and the higher-headroom, more dynamic bite of silicon diodes.
• Tone: Keeps what the maker calls the soul of the original's magical high-end contour, with a refined and dramatically improved response curve.
• Blend: A dedicated Clean Blend lets you mix in your dry signal independently.
• Level: Sets the output volume of the overdrive channel.

The Dynamics knob is the control that most separates the Aquaria from a stock Klon-style circuit. Rather than fixing the diode character, it puts the germanium-versus-silicon choice on a knob, so the same pedal can sit anywhere from smooth and compressed to open and biting¹.

The EQ and boost channel: four bands

The second footswitch unlocks what the maker calls a beautifully voiced active EQ with four hand-picked frequency bands, plus a separate Master Volume for the boost¹. The bands are¹:

Because the EQ and boost sit on their own footswitch, they can be engaged independently of the main overdrive channel, which makes the Aquaria usable as a standalone tone-shaping and volume-boost tool as well as a drive¹. Karlsson's review highlights this as the pedal's distinguishing feature, describing it as a 4-band EQ and boost on a second footswitch².

History and versions

The Aquaria was designed by Daniel Ringl of Lichtlaerm Audio. Karlsson, who has reviewed several of the maker's gain pedals, writes that "Daniel Ringl is such a smart circuit designer"².

The pedal is now in its second version. The V2 is best identified by its jellyfish artwork and the Dynamics mini knob, which differ from the original, and plenty of V1 units are still in circulation. As of January 2025 the V2 was actively filtering through into distribution while the V1 was still listed on the maker's website⁴.

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X has covered the Aquaria V2 several times, and the verdicts have been consistently positive. In a September 2025 roundup of Klon-style pedals, Karlsson called it "a very fine example here - and one that was an instant hit for me!"². In the site's December 2025 roundup of the year's best boost and overdrive pedals, he described it as "a superb extended range take on the Klon," noting that it "almost got a SILVER award too," and that with its 4-band EQ "you can really shape its output and it has a tonne of gain and volume onboard"⁵.

On pricing, a September 2025 listing gives the US price as $219 USD², while a December 2025 listing gives it as $179, alongside a European price of €199⁵.

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