Lampizator questions

[mikicasellas]

4 hours ago, Blake said:

 

My DAC is currently at the factory in Poland and I haven't had the chance to compare it with the Terminator Plus, but I'll be doing that when it ships to me.  I haven't yet determined if I'll be using Gaia.  I'll also experiment with that.  The Lampi has the JL Sounds usb, so I'll see how that compares to inserting my Gaia in the chain, using another digital input on the Lampi.   

 

 

Look forward to your findings

 

( I hope this approach don't mess with the line of this thread, im sorry if I did it )

 

Im trying to get a better idea if my actual Terminator II competes favorably with the following DACs:

 

- Lampizator Baltic 3

- Sonnet Pasithea

- SW1X DAC II BALANCED

 

By the way, using the T-II with HQP in the next configuration , takes the T-II to the very best it can achieve, and so my doubt is if any of these excellent DACs using HQP with their limited rate limit would be even better although they don't go as far as the T-II 

 

[mikicasellas]

2 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Is there a noticeable difference from PCM 768khz to 1.536mhz?

Yes, more calmness and more clear bass notes that are lost in the lower PCM 768, 512 & 384

 

Still sounds great, but once in 1.536mhz there is no back on the T-II at least 

 

How do those DAC choices mentioned in my original post, stack against the T-II ?

[mikicasellas]

16 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

That sounds like you're saying that it sounds more "DSD-like" than lower rate PCM. Is that a fair assessment?

Not quite, DSD-Like in HQP sound more smooth in my system but not the way I like it, even my DSD64 albums sound better in my PCM 1.536mhz config

[mikicasellas]

8 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I'm going to speculate that this is very DAC specific and a result of the way your DAC handles DSD being an R2R DAC.

It is the Denafrips T-II

 

I have tried several times trying to squeeze the SDM output mode on HQP and for my ears the openness and liveness of the PCM 1.536mhz was better than the SDM....But after reading your comments, You left me thinking, so I tried again, using Poli-Sync-mp or Closed Form  with DSD5v2 256 +fs, I can listen to same PCM but even better ( you are right ), its about the same but is more silky on the HF...issue is a lot of drops and temperature went so high that I had to turn the server off, and I had to go down from 96000000 to 32768000 with less drops but SQ was not as good and temps also were very high.

My server is fanless and my guess is that I will have to upgrade my CPU/MoBo and pipes on the server:

Any suggestions ?

 

SERVER:

- HDPLEX H5 Fanless Case

- ASUS ROG MAXIMUS HERO XIII Z590

- Intel i7-10700K

- TAIKO DC-ATX

- Apacer 2666 Industrial ( 8GB )

- Optane 58GB 

 

 

 

 

[mikicasellas]

I have the Terminator-II which for me is a very clear step up to the original Terminator, but Im infatuated with the Baltic 3, did not know there was an Amber 4.

 

 

[mikicasellas]

6 minutes ago, elan120 said:

Any chance you could comment on the differences between your T-II and Baltic 3.

Sorry, i was not clear !

 

I would like to try / Know from other members here who have tried both if Baltic 3 is way better ?

 

I know from some person here that sold his T-II + Hermes to stayed with the Baltic, and although his experience is very important in this context, I have to take in count "synergy" as my Preamp is a Denafrips Athena, so i would give an arm to be able to hear it again the T-II or read more observations and experiences from others that has gone similar ways

[mikicasellas]

20 minutes ago, elan120 said:

Looks like I misinterpreted your earlier post.  I may end up going for an Amber 4 unless I can somehow find a way to increase the height, then I will try a Baltic 3 or others in their lineup.

 

To me, Terminator is an overall fun DAC that provide good clarity, energy, and scale.  It has strong macrodynamic focus with good impact and punch, as well as solid resolving power and texture, but the drawback is lacking microdynamic capability, tonality is not organic, neither is presentation, treble is not that refined, and can sometimes get too hot and gritty.  What I hope in Amber 4 is a balanced DAC that lean a bit more toward the relaxed and slightly sweeter smoother side of things, great organicness, great placement accuracy and depth in overall stage, great coherency and liquidity, as well as having great impact and punch.  Perhaps @Dev could help provide further details since he seems to have experience in both DACs.

It was my bad, i made you guys understood that I already had the Baltic.

 

You are right on the T-II characteristics.

 

I did not know Lukasz launched a new Amber 4

 

Let me know your impressions once you have it

 

Nice day !

[mikicasellas]

54 minutes ago, barbz said:

Has anyone had ears on both the amber 4 and baltic 3? Trying to find some impressions on how they differ to know which may have a better synergy with my Riviera amp and my ears.

 

Thankyou

Ask Marc from Sablon, I know he owns a Riviera Int. and he is using a Baltic 3

[mikicasellas]

On 6/3/2022 at 1:31 AM, Nikko1960 said:

I use HQPlayer with my Baltic3, up sampling to DSD256 from red book and Tidal high Rez formats. 
 

Upsampling has a huge positive impact to the sound. Jussi’s ECv2 modulators are simply superb. Although people on the HQP forums rave about the ASDM7ECv2 modulator, I find that the 5th order variant yields the most organic sound from the Baltic3.

 

There are lots of filters to choose from but my current fav is guass-long for red book and the high-Rez variant for Nx. 
 

Any Lampizator owners can give HQPlayer a test, since Jussi offers a trial version. I run it on a dedicated Mac Mini M1 & 8GB ram, and it upsamples to DSD256 using the heavy modulators without issue. 
 

nikko

 

 

Hi Nikko, Best for 2023 !

 

I have the Lampi Baltic 3 and im wondering how many bits are the ideal in HQplayer for these Lampi DACs, Miska could not answer, he knew about the T-II but he said no experience with Lampi DACs

 

Could you share your HQP config please ?

Regards

 

Miguel

[mikicasellas]

10 hours ago, Nikko1960 said:

 

HNY to you too, Miguel.

 

Please find attached a screen shot of my settings.  Note that I am converting to a DSD stream.  I throttle the volume back to -3.4db to prevent clipping.  But I leave bits set to auto.  Someone told me some time back that the bits setting only matters when you upsample to PCM.

 

All the best

 

Nikko

 

Thank you Nikko,

 

I was using 32 DAC bits and now using DEFAULT ( as yours ) it sounds a little less Trebly and following your config and then using CLOSE FORM & N5 Dither on PCM seems more analog in my system of course...with SDM, my server goes from 40 wish Celsius to 68-75 C, im using HQP thru Euphony and with ROON