Lampi pacific in the House

[ALRAINBOW]

My Pacific Voyage

by Al Dattolo

Intro:

As many of you may know from my posts, I have been a Lampizator fan for several years and own a couple of their DACs. I have been enthusiastic about this small company and it unique offerings for some time and the announcement of the Pacific piqued my interest deeply.

About 3 weeks ago I got an offer I couldn’t refuse when my friend, Fred A., who happens to be the North American Distributor of LampizatOr, offered to loan me his personal Pacific while his home was being renovated. I quickly accepted the offer and setup a day to meet up and collect it.

The Pacific came in a large heavily reinforced transport case, similar to the kind used for roadies in shows. Inside it was heavily padded. Shiny? Yes. Bling? Yes-- but not over the top. It's gold finish is elegant without being over the top gaudy. The Riccardo Kron tubes in their custom
boxes are another “perfect 10" in my book as well. For me these choices seem right for a flagship product.

Upon getting the unit placed it in my rack I let it warm up for two hours with the Riccardo Kron edition 300b and 5u4G tubes it came with.

 

Background:

Before diving straight into my review, I want to say a little about myself. I have spent the better part of my life pursuing high end audio. As a teenager I built my first stereo from parts bought from a local audio store called “Lafayette Electronics”.
Does that name sound familiar? It should--they were "da bomb" many, many years ago. I remember fondly those days as I had speakers, headphones even a customized car stereo.

In those days there were three ways to play audio: vinyl and tape and of course a radio. In my view it's well merited that to this day both vinyl and tape remain the pinnacle of high end audio reproduction .

My present system is made up of collection of both new and old components. Some say the equipment of the past was better than the present in many aspects and that more often than not newer is not better, and I believe there is merit to this thinking... When solid state came out I was there
and when the shiny discs came out I was there too. Back then I had all (built by me) David Hafler stuff. Amps , preamp , equalizer too.

What I noticed back then was a heightened level of detail relative to what I’d experienced before. Sonically speaking, I’ve always been somewhat of a detail junkie and, as my equipment improved over time, complexities and trade off associated with the chase became apparent.

As a final introductory note: Honesty isn’t always welcome in forum posts, and I do, on occasion, catch hell for it. I never post about things I have not tried or do not understand, unless I am attempting to learn something for myself.

 

My current configuration is as follows:

Speakers - Infinity IRS V completely revamped by me.
New magnets , wires , new cross over (now external) designed and voiced by Arnie Nudel himself (what could be better?) Also, a new balanced active cross over also by Arnie and along with a new PSU . All work was done by ps audio. I also commissioned a analog phase shifter/adjuster for the woofer towers .

Amplification is a heavily modified Aragon 4004 Mkii with custom power supply scheme.

Preamplifier duties are handled though the analog inputs by my MSB Platinum+ 4

DACS : MSB Platinum plus 4 new USB input, LampizatOr Big 7 (2017 vintage), a custom

LampizatOr Golden Gate Headdac with super clocks , R2R Pcm384/DSD256 , chipless DSD512. It was made to be neutral for headphones and has a driver tube with a bypass switch . It's SE with many tube rolling options .

 

Source - My server is a self built dual PC setup. My player PC hosts Roon while the computer interfacing with the DAC hosts HQ Player. Both computers use Windows SERVER 2016, Audiophile Optimizer, a full size Gamer Motherboard with 4 feed digital controlled cpu voltage reg with a 3.5ghz Xeon cpu . This is for both player PC and dac PC. A custom NAS (actually a storage area network -SAN) with a full size main board 6 core cpu . 4 spinning drives holding about 20TB of music. 4 external LPS power supplies are used for all and many voltage bus feeds for all drives and on board devices. Enterprise grade LAN cards and LPS. Network switch on its own separate network.

 

Review:

I believe the servers I use allow me to extract the very best a DAC is capable of, although this can be a double edged sword at times. It leaves nowhere to hide for the limit of the dac's capability: noise floor, imaging, micro and macro details. and finally dynamics. Upon listening to the Pacific for the first time in my system, it showed me much more details than I normally have in my system and seems not to have a sound of its own. What this means is each track has its own sound. A good friend explained that is what Ultra Hi-End audio reproduction should be. This dac has this in spades! As a result of this, my personal reference tracks were like brand new to me, despite hearing them hundreds of times. The resolution I am describing is more complex than just more sounds. The sound I have been experiencing gives me whole new layers in playback. I can hear the vocals slightly change in sound level even the piano keys intensity is there. To say the Pacific was better than my own reference HeadDac is an oversimplification, to really describe it I needed many hours to get into words what's better.

 

From the Moment I turned the Pacific on it was clear this was levels above what I had ever had in my system. In fact, even the very best, cost-no-object, DACs in world class systems, don't have the Pacific’s level of refinement. Let's define refinement on my terms, it means cleaner sounds, more bloom around the notes or vocals, yet not pointed nor thin. Notes or vocal decay is what attaches me to the music and as you get hyper details, it's usually thinner by nature. The gift of refinement is to have both details presented along with the note decay and sustain that makes allows a piece to retain it’s weight . The sound this dac gives is the most detailed I have experienced, yet it truly retains the decay! Not even some very expensive dacs I have heard give this level of refinement. Noise floor: this is of the most important in any ultra high end system. Silence is what we want.

 

My system is fed from a 10kw balanced isolation transformer. It is completely isolated in the ground plain of my home or power grid . This gives my setup a base noise floor much lower than the use of typical room power. Most don't use or understand the vast inportance of this power distribution system . It's how I am able to hear the musical fine details that I speak of. While the Pacific will take most any setup to the next level of sound, in my own system I hear just how limitless this DAC’s noise floor is. To hear the vocalist breathe and form their next word makes me feel I am at the mic feed level. No dac I have had or heard gives this kind of "you are there" feel. To hear the slightest change in inflection of a piano while singing is what ultra hi end is about layers that seem so separate yet from the same song is almost unnerving to me. I have told others that any horn or string Instrument has a rise and fall of each note. On a saxophone or horn I call it a “croak”. It is the start of a note as blown onto the reed. Smearing of this is typical in lesser dacs as they can't seem to get or hold this kind of detail. Part of this may be related to their reproduction of decay–lesser DACs, even backed by the best of servers, do not and cannot present this no matter what I do.

 

I don't build servers commercially, rather it is a labor of love for me and I have restlessly sought to extract additional levels of refinement in them. In doing so I know what makes a dac sound great, but the dac can only play at its own inherent limit. The Pacific dac gives me the most detailed note decay, yet still as fast I have ever had in my system. What is needed in any ultra high end system is just a handful of parameters: clarity, fast dynamics, micro and macro details (note decay resides in these two) and low noise floor . Seems like a small order, no? Notice a house sound is not included in the list! No dac should have house sound but most do and in the past even Lampizator was guilty of this as well. The Pacific, however, distinguishes itself in that it does not. Though difficult to describe, it is simple to appreciate once you it in a system that can give you this.

To be continued with next installment very soon

[ALRAINBOW]

My dacs in the House asside of the new pacific dac are 

MSB stack 

headdac golden gate 

BIG 7 point to point reavamped in late 2016 

commemts comming. 

The dac comes with a new set of recardo Kron 

300B 

amd a recardo Kron 5U4G 

i alao have a barrage of tubes I have rolled in that will also be commented on for others as a guide 

 

[ALRAINBOW]

On 4/25/2018 at 9:55 AM, firedog said:

Will be interested in your comparison to other Lampi's.

Great question and coming in posts later 

and I will be doing direct comparisons as i own two others. 

[ALRAINBOW]

PART 2:


It's been more than three weeks since the Pacific was installed in my system in this time I have played my now all new music hours each day . My comment of all new music is for me the most dramatic part of this dac. What I mean by my music is all new is a window into reproduction that seems correct and untainted by a house sound of the dac. No dac I have ever had in my system nor ever heard did not have a house sound. Many post of the virtues of a great dacs' house sound . In the past I too was onboard with this concept as a virtue as well. Over time a good audio bud has helped me bring my system to a new level of transparency . Let me describe transparency because some use this very needed word with varying interpretations. 

For me it's a clear window , with glass so clear that any changes are observed without having to look for it. For me changes that are not noticed immediately are ok as some changes for me need a few mins to a few hours to really be digested. Once I learn it , it now becomes one more facet in pursuing better sound. There are many aspects of sonic change that's good , bad and ugly but any change must be heard and understood. Have you ever played a song perhaps on Tidal and now remastered on MQA . At first play it may wow you or underwhelm you. This is the immediate reaction and this may be the final one, but it never should be the only one used for final judgement. What this means is that time is needed for our brains to learn what's new to your senses. I have many times loved or liked fast, but always over time there is more depth underneath this initial reaction. A transparent system allows for minute changes to have layers or levels of details that produces an end result of "like or not". 

My perspective of perceived changes may not bethe absolute reference, due to many reasons: systems vary greatly as does our own hearing . So how does one person write a review that can be read and then fully appreciated by others? My answer is a deep explanation of each change, and my own explanation of the words I use. After all, there really is little in audio we all agree on and even the words we use to describe are heavily debated. 

Listening to the same music on multiple systems is essential for me. So how does one accomplish this large task? For me, I use various forms of playback systems I own and know very well. Headphones are a great tool and of course I also enjoy them. Only a few headphones I own or have heard yield sound I feel is like my massive IRS V sound . No headphone gives the wall of sound or the "you are there" illusion like these speakers. However, some get close enough in staging, but more important is the varying transparency that I use as a tool/guage. I define a varying transparency as the varying levels of details each system yields, but even in this variance there is enough commonality to show me what’s real and what’s made up. Some dacs add bass on every song. Some add false dynamics as well. Playing my known music on many setups gives me views I need to show me a better truth in what’s real or not. 

The most speaker-like headphone I own is the Hifiman HE6. A great headphone that is very difficult to make sound right. A big amp (far more than most headphone amps) is needed. Once you have it done right it's a whole new vista into the music layering that gives me many details I can use to compare to my speakers . So why use headphones or even more than one system or amp? This is far more important than you may think! The Pacific dac in my opinion has little to no "sound" of its own and just by rolling tubes shows any variation in reproduction . The answer is to confirm what the music has that is common to more than one setup. This shows me more of what is originally there and less of what is put there subsequently. Are there parts of the music put there by the playback chain? This method and others are used as a baseline for any dac I use. Using this method with other dacs, amps, headphones, CIEMS gives me much more details to judge by. 

Each song has its own mix of sound and album to album must show very prominent changes. Have you ever played a few songs from one album and noticed big changes from one track to another? Well, any one track to the next should have changes, some even as the mix is changed during the song. Transparency and playing this music in different setups shows me what's really common to all music. Many dacs pick and and choose what we hear. My conclusion is the Pacific does not intrude, it simply passes through only what's in the music. In many ways the dac is passive; this is a word I'll bet no one may have used in a description yet it's a very big virtue to have. Passive does not mean it does nothing. In my terms, it's the ultimate of non invasive sound reproduction . After all, we want to hear our music reproduced without a flavor. In using many forms of playback and many dacs I can better confirm just how transparent or passive this dac is. 

Tube rolling any Lampi is a virtue that may seem complex and one could even ask why do I need to do this. When you go to a steak house and order your steak, do you let them pick the cut or how it's cooked and what sides it comes with ? In owning many dacs over the years each having a steadfast sound always puzzled me and using an EQ is just too dark a path to go down . So all that is left is the sound THAT manufacturer feels is best for all. That alone is scary for me. Now as I have said the Pacific is so transparent, it can have a varying sound scale by rolling tubes . Each set of tubes has its own sound, not massive, but enough to vary the sound to better tailor to anyone's system . We all have varying likes and playing varying genre some may feel needs an appropriately matched tube type. Tube rolling yields a treasure trove of sound changes that is very rewarding. 

In the next installment I will delve into tube rolling with previous Lampi dacs and with the Pacific . The Pacific brings tube rolling to a new level of refinement .