Lampizator questions

[Jabs1542]

For me, it's always more fun to listen to the Lampizators than to touch...

 

Lampizator's 5th Generation DSD DAC

 

That would be my exact DAC, including the upgraded caps! Brian, you didn't mention PCM to DSD through HQP, have you tried HQP? Frankly I think Miska (Jussi) may need to consider renaming the product to "Crack", it's very addictive.

 

One comment at the end jumped out and I can testify to its accuracy, "The DSD DAC is also very crank-able..." I find that the Lampi makes music flow effortlessly through my system and it's so clean you just naturally turn it up (then I venture into the kitchen and realize how loud the system is . I'm a long time vinyl person and have now found my home in the CA world due to the Lampi DSD DAC - now back to last night's download, Center Stage.

[Ipoci]

Lampizator's 5th Generation DSD DAC

 

Nice.

 

I've a doubt ... Why the player needs to have DoP transport flagged ? I expect to have direct DSD playout due to the fact no digital conversions are in place ( no DAC chipset there ) ... So I'm a bit confused.

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

[Jabs1542]

Nice.

 

I've a doubt ... Why the player needs to have DoP transport flagged ? I expect to have direct DSD playout due to the fact no digital conversions are in place ( no DAC chipset there ) ... So I'm a bit confused.

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

 

I think it is software/system dependent. When running JRiver I have to use DoP with the Lampi, but with HQP through the SMS (as a NAA) it accepts native DSD.

[bmoura]

That would be my exact DAC, including the upgraded caps! Brian, you didn't mention PCM to DSD through HQP, have you tried HQP? Frankly I think Miska (Jussi) may need to consider renaming the product to "Crack", it's very addictive.

 

One comment at the end jumped out and I can testify to its accuracy, "The DSD DAC is also very crank-able..." I find that the Lampi makes music flow effortlessly through my system and it's so clean you just naturally turn it up (then I venture into the kitchen and realize how loud the system is . I'm a long time vinyl person and have now found my home in the CA world due to the Lampi DSD DAC - now back to last night's download, Center Stage.

 

Very true. You can crank up the Lampizator and the clean, clear sound just keeps coming!

 

The Lampizator folks recommend JRiver for their DACs so most of the testing was done with that music player. I've experimented a bit with HQ Player. What settings are you using with the Lampizator Level 4 and HQ Player? May have to try that here. (My PCM to DSD upsampling used the Foobar ASIO plug-in + JRiver).

[Jabs1542]

Very true. You can crank up the Lampizator and the clean, clear sound just keeps coming!

 

The Lampizator folks recommend JRiver for their DACs so most of the testing was done with that music player. I've experimented a bit with HQ Player. What settings are you using with the Lampizator Level 4 and HQ Player? May have to try that here. (My PCM to DSD upsampling used the Foobar ASIO plug-in + JRiver).

 

I am currently enjoying "poly-sinc-shrt" with "ASDM5" streamed at DSD128.

 

I have to apologize for something I said, I said mine was the exact same. Not so, mine doesn't have the blue led eye, mine has the evil red eye :}

[bmoura]

I am currently enjoying "poly-sinc-shrt" with "ASDM5" streamed at DSD128.

 

I have to apologize for something I said, I said mine was the exact same. Not so, mine doesn't have the blue led eye, mine has the evil red eye :}

 

Yes, a little different. The Lampizator here is the 5th Generation DSD DAC. Sounds quite nice - even at DSD64!

[wisnon]

 

Feedback from a Zurich pal with a L5 in L4 chassis...

 

I received the DAC yesterday and was listening a long time already. Now it’s pure pleasure to listen, I can tell I never heard a better DAC. Specifically the depth behind the Loudspeaker is now huge, all other DAC’s are flat in comparison. Only my AcousticPlan (CD/DAC) has a little bit of that space/room.

 

For me is the searching for a DAC now history.

[Mark V.]

Wow, nice set! Are these Lansche loudspeakers???

[Jabs1542]

Yes, a little different. The Lampizator here is the 5th Generation DSD DAC. Sounds quite nice - even at DSD64!

 

Yes, mine is also a Gen 5. I see on the checkout list an option for the LED light, didn't know that was an option.

[Jabs1542]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15694[/ATTACH]

 

Feedback from a Zurich pal with a L5 in L4 chassis...

 

I received the DAC yesterday and was listening a long time already. Now it’s pure pleasure to listen, I can tell I never heard a better DAC. Specifically the depth behind the Loudspeaker is now huge, all other DAC’s are flat in comparison. Only my AcousticPlan (CD/DAC) has a little bit of that space/room.

 

For me is the searching for a DAC now history.

 

Congrats and well done. Once you've gone through your DSDs you'll want to check out HQPlayer and give your RBCDs a listen too.

[wisnon]

Wow, nice set! Are these Lansche loudspeakers???

 

Yes, and they are still being made (he said they are the equivalent of the 5.1s?), but no longer on the website. Look closer and you will see the red glow of the Corona Plasma tweeter. Hopefully next time I visit Zurich, i will tag along with this pal and go visit the Lansche factory on the other siade of the lake in Germany!

[wisnon]

Congrats and well done. Once you've gone through your DSDs you'll want to check out HQPlayer and give your RBCDs a listen too.

 

LoL, Jabs, it would take me years to go thru my DSD archive! My pal above with the Lansche speakers uses his Oracle TT to make vinyl rips to DSD125 on a Korg. I have a PS3 ripper...and when you augment that with nativeDSD/AcosusticsSounds/HDTT you gate get up there very fast.

 

In any case, 1 have a Big7 and like my Lancshe speaker buddy says, PCM is almost equivalent to DSD on the new Lampis...and that is saying a LOT!

 

See my Dac here: note I have something like 11 rectis to roll and several 6a3/2a3/45 globes and STs/ 101d vintage WE ST/ Psvane tennis ball globe output tubes.

[Mark V.]

Yes, and they are still being made (he said they are the equivalent of the 5.1s?), but no longer on the website. Look closer and you will see the red glow of the Corona Plasma tweeter. Hopefully next time I visit Zurich, i will tag along with this pal and go visit the Lansche factory on the other siade of the lake in Germany!

 

I recognised the tweeter! I didn't forget the first time Lansche demonstrated their tweeter during the High End Exebition Germany which was held in Frankfurt. Approx. 1999 - 2000 I guess. They didn't use High End amp and source and the loudspeaker in which they had incorporated their tweeter wasn't the best either, but the SQ from this tweeter impressed me quite a lot! (and I am not quickly impressed by things demonstrated on shows) Only few things did touch me during years and years of visiting those shows, the highlight being a demonstration of Verity Audio Parsifal speakers with Nagra source and amp, playing digital master tapes directly from a female singer (can't remember her name). The set did manage to reproduce all the emotion of the music in such a stunning way and it sounded as "live" as I have EVER heard, that me and a friend who did accompany me had tears rolling over our faces... I think the Parsifals and the extremely good recording were the main reasons for this extremely good performance.

 

Sorry to be off-topic...

[Jabs1542]

LoL, Jabs, it would take me years to go thru my DSD archive! My pal above with the Lansche speakers uses his Oracle TT to make vinyl rips to DSD125 on a Korg. I have a PS3 ripper...and when you augment that with nativeDSD/AcosusticsSounds/HDTT you gate get up there very fast.

 

In any case, 1 have a Big7 and like my Lancshe speaker buddy says, PCM is almost equivalent to DSD on the new Lampis...and that is saying a LOT!

 

See my Dac here: note I have something like 11 rectis to roll and several 6a3/2a3/45 globes and STs/ 101d vintage WE ST/ Psvane tennis ball globe output tubes.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15705[/ATTACH]

 

Excellent! I'm clearly jealous though I'm not sure if it's over the L7 or the massive pile of DSD I hope I get to hear PCM over a Lampi some time, I'm curious to see if I find it as magical as it it with DSD.

 

I've never rolled rectifiers though I have plenty of driver tubes for rolling, my unit uses 12AT7 and 12AU7 driver tubes. Current flavors I have in stock include Mullard and Genalex Gold Lion. What type of changes do you get rolling the rectifier? I'll be asking for some advice when I'm ready to open that door.

[mrmb]

Wisnon: Rolling the rectifier in my pre-amp (Aria Audio WV5XL) made a nice improvement, so I'm looking forward to doing so with my Big7, which as yours, uses the single rectifier configuration. I've been following the Lampi threads here and elsewhere and the posters have been providing good tips as to what is working well for them. I assume that you will do much regarding you rolling experiences.

 

From what I've ascertained, it seems that the Mullard CV378 Fat Bottle, the WE422A, Mullard 5ar4 (Metal Base) and GEC52 are garnering good reviews. But with your 11 rectifiers, you should have most, if not all of the bases covered.

 

Presently, in transit, I have a pair of National Union 45's and Sylvania 6a3's heading my way. Their insertion should be interesting....

[hifi25nl]

From Lampizator site (original capital letters...):

"IMPORTANT NOTE: THE COMMERCIAL DSD DAC IS NOT THE RADIO TECHNOLOGY ONE, DESCRIBED BELOW IN THE YELLOW TEXT FRAME. THAT ONE WAS A PROTOTYPE, AN EXERCISE IN ELECTRONICS. THE REASON IT COULD NOT BE SOLD WAS THAT IT HAD TOO MANY FILTRATION ARTIFACTS AUDIBLE BETWEEN SONGS. ON SILENT MOMENTS IT HAD SOME POPS, CLICKS AND BUZZ. SO WE HAD TO DESIGN SOMETHING MORE SELLABLE.

THE LAMPIZATOR DSD DAC HAS USB PORT BUILT IN, SOLID STATE DIGITAL FILTER, PASSIVE DISCRETE ANALOG FILTER AND ACTIVE DISCRETE TUBE FILTER. IT DOES NOT MANIPULATE THE DATA IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM, IT DOES NOT CONVERT IT, UPSAMPLE, RECLOCK OR DOWNSAMPLE. IT DOES NOT GO THROUGH PCM PROCESS EITHER. IT IS PUREST NATIVE DSD WE KNOW OF. WE PRACTICALLY ONLY GENTLY REMOVE THE CARRIER FREQUENCY FROM THE RAW DATA AS IT COMES FROM HARD DRIVE. NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS."

 

If I understand right very last last version of DSD only Lampizator has both digital filter and active filter? I am asking because specifications for Lampizator DACs are changing very often...I would be curious how a digital filter for DSD is implemented in the closed mystery box...

[Jabs1542]

From Lampizator site (original capital letters...):

"IMPORTANT NOTE: THE COMMERCIAL DSD DAC IS NOT THE RADIO TECHNOLOGY ONE, DESCRIBED BELOW IN THE YELLOW TEXT FRAME. THAT ONE WAS A PROTOTYPE, AN EXERCISE IN ELECTRONICS. THE REASON IT COULD NOT BE SOLD WAS THAT IT HAD TOO MANY FILTRATION ARTIFACTS AUDIBLE BETWEEN SONGS. ON SILENT MOMENTS IT HAD SOME POPS, CLICKS AND BUZZ. SO WE HAD TO DESIGN SOMETHING MORE SELLABLE.

THE LAMPIZATOR DSD DAC HAS USB PORT BUILT IN, SOLID STATE DIGITAL FILTER, PASSIVE DISCRETE ANALOG FILTER AND ACTIVE DISCRETE TUBE FILTER. IT DOES NOT MANIPULATE THE DATA IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM, IT DOES NOT CONVERT IT, UPSAMPLE, RECLOCK OR DOWNSAMPLE. IT DOES NOT GO THROUGH PCM PROCESS EITHER. IT IS PUREST NATIVE DSD WE KNOW OF. WE PRACTICALLY ONLY GENTLY REMOVE THE CARRIER FREQUENCY FROM THE RAW DATA AS IT COMES FROM HARD DRIVE. NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS."

 

If I understand right very last last version of DSD only Lampizator has both digital filter and active filter? I am asking because specifications for Lampizator DACs are changing very often...I would be curious how a digital filter for DSD is implemented in the closed mystery box...

 

Looking at your audio-Linux website I would guess that you know much more about this than most of us on this forum. I'm sure you studied the photos of the DSD DAC on Lukasz's website and you see there is only one small bit of IC right where the USB plugs into the unit. I was under the impression that this was for USB handshaking with the Amanero driver. The text they posted certainly gives you the impression that there is a digital filter there as well, and there may very well be (maybe there has to be some digital filtering), but I also understand your question since the text on the site may be much older than the current design.

[bmoura]

Yes, mine is also a Gen 5. I see on the checkout list an option for the LED light, didn't know that was an option.

 

I'm sure the sound is the same - regardless of LED light color!

 

Your equipment list says "Lampi L4 DSD" - is that a Lampizator Level 4 DAC with DSD, or a 4th Generation Lampizator DSD DAC?

[Jabs1542]

I'm sure the sound is the same - regardless of LED light color!

 

Your equipment list says "Lampi L4 DSD" - is that a Lampizator Level 4 DAC with DSD, or a 4th Generation Lampizator DSD DAC?

 

From what I understand, and my paperwork sports this, they make one DSD only DAC and it is made at a Level 4 spec. That is, it shares many of the same components as the regular Level 4 DAC. My unit is a Gen 5 and this tends to relate to when you bought the device, I've had mine for a couple of months. My paperwork states, hand written at the top of their checkout/QA form, that the device a DAC Level 4 Gen 5 with the Jupiter capacitors, PBC type is DSD with all the DSD options checked off and all the PCM options scratched through.

 

And yes, I suspect they sound the same regardless of the light. I'll update my equipment list shortly.

[bmoura]

From what I understand, and my paperwork sports this, they make one DSD only DAC and it is made at a Level 4 spec. That is, it shares many of the same components as the regular Level 4 DAC. My unit is a Gen 5 and this tends to relate to when you bought the device, I've had mine for a couple of months. My paperwork states, hand written at the top of their checkout/QA form, that the device a DAC Level 4 Gen 5 with the Jupiter capacitors, PBC type is DSD with all the DSD options checked off and all the PCM options scratched through.

 

And yes, I suspect they sound the same regardless of the light. I'll update my equipment list shortly.

 

OK, definitely the same DAC. Enjoy!

[lightminer]

So, something finally clicked for me that hadn't occurred to me or at least landed in my lap in the sense of really making sense until a few days ago.

 

 

Well, let me actually pose it as a question. Assuming you have an actual native DSD file, is the Lampi DSD Dac equal to a L7/wDSD?

 

If so.... Think about it. It is under 4k. The L7 is 12k with a few options, right?

 

Next comment - people argue about if 16/44.1 uprezzed in JRiver either offline or during playback - if that sounds better or not than normal playback. But I have found no one that says it sounds worse. It is either better, or the same depending on whom you ask.

 

So..... The L7 is supposed to be better than 30k stacks from a few years ago from EmmLabs or DCS. Right? Isn't that the idea here?

 

What if we could get that at 3800?

 

Am I missing something? I already have a Oppo105d so I'm good or A/V, the DAC in that is already better than necessary for decoding things from Comcast. That is the main drawback from a DSD-only DAC is you can only use it from a program like JRiver than can convert everything to DSD. But I've got that covered.

 

Am I right, or am I missing something here? How does the DSD dac compare to L7? (On DSD, of course)

[wisnon]

I would think the Big7 is a bit better (not personally tested myself) due to the DHT tubes. DSD seems to love the big bottle tubes a bit more, but the difference would be more subtle, as it seems to like the ECC40 small signal tubes as well.

 

The other difference would be the L7 circuitry and parts quality, plus the recent options of dual mono DSD board and the new 256 boards will also make a difference. Is the upcoming DSD only Dac with the 256 board option better than an old L7 with the unupgraded DSD board? Not sure. Maybe the big bottles keep it as a fair fight?

 

My personal recc. would be to get the DSD only Dac if budget is the prime consideration (and still get most if not all of the magic) and splurge if you can afford it for the more all out design assault of the Big7 or even the Golden Gate!

 

Many have gone the DSD only route and are perfectly happy, maybe only willing to change for the 256 upgrade when its ready.

[Jabs1542]

I have the DSD only and agree with Wisnon. The L7 has a bigger/better power supply section and higher quality parts all around, this concept benefits both the DSD circuits and the PCM circuits. The resulting sound difference is unknown - and I suspect there are very few people that have both units at the same time to do a comparison.

 

My DSD only DAC is quite special and I've never heard anything like it. When you compare its size to other DSD only DACs, and then consider the simple nature of the circuitry, the result is that the box is big because it is using large quality parts. I relish in the fact that the only chip inside this DAC (the L4 DSD only) is the USB interface.

 

I also agree with Wisnon regarding the price. If the DSD only is in your price range and the L7 is double that and a long ways away then I would get the DSD only. Note that you will want to have your PCM bases covered elsewhere.

[Rick U]

I also agree with Wisnon regarding the price. If the DSD only is in your price range and the L7 is double that and a long ways away then I would get the DSD only. Note that you will want to have your PCM bases covered elsewhere.

 

Jabs have you tried running converted PCM files through your Lampi DSD? If so, how do they sound compared to your dedicated PCM Dac?

[lightminer]

If we can trust this guy, this is some pretty serious praise at this price level:

 

Lampizator DSD DAC Review

 

Early in article:

I’m more of an A/D aficionado and have several at my disposal with the best being the Grimm AD1 and Merging Horus. The best DSD DAC I have used to date has been my Playback Designs MPS-5. I have had other DAC’s including the Mytek Stereo 192/DSD, MSB Diamond with Diamond PS, dCS Scarlatti and the DAD AX24. The Merging Horus I currently have also has 8-channel D/A capabilities of PCM rates up to 384kHz and DSD up to 256fs.

 

Later in article:

The Lampi is the best DSD I’ve heard.

 

 

 

It would be nice to hear some validations of the PCM->2XDSD conversions, both realtime and offline.

 

I'm doing it myself in JRiver to the rather pedestrian Oppo105D, and actually so far, I don't have any problems at all. I haven't taken the time to do lots of a/b testing of uprezzed and non, but I have listened to both off and on, and I certainly can't say it is bad in any way. Is it much better? I'd have to test, and that would just be on Oppo105D.

 

Note that what we are talking about, in extremely broad strokes, is the process that the PS Audio Direct Stream DAC is taking, push everything into high DSD before the actual DAC part.