Lampizator Komputer vs. Aurender N10
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No. I have one but I haven't tried it yet. Of course, everyone says you need to upgrade the PS on the regen so who knows.
I don't have the one actually built by Lampizator, mine was built by my network engineer son to the same specs with the same parts as recommended to me by Elberoth who spec'd it for Lampi. mine has a couple of LPS's added, the Teradak ATX for the Mobo, and the Uptone LS-2 for the USB card. it uses the same spec'd software; Windows 2012 RS standard in 'core' mode, audiophile optimizer, and Jriver.
it's perfectly stable for both my Trinity dac and Golden Gate.....it never drops out or gets hung up. dead quiet, no hum or noise of any kind. it sits in my rack about 7 feet from my ears. minimal heat except the Teradak LPS. JRiver and JRemote on my mini i-pad is a dream to use even switching between the dacs is seamless.
sounds wonderful on both dacs. super low noise floor, amazing bass, very layered soundstage and image focus. ultra refined and nuanced. my system pretty much reveals what there is to hear so there is no place to hide. my reference is my very spendy vinyl and RTR tape. I'm listening to more digital today than ever.
Thanks Mike for your feedback! I know you have a tremendous audio system. It sounds like you did a terrific job with the linear power supplies. I wonder how the Lampi Komputer's separate linear power supply stacks up in comparison?
Best,
Ken
Mike, that looks (and I am sure sounds) like a great digital front end. I does seem like a shame that one needs to spend $2k on power supplies to get acceptable results. Are there lower cost options with close to the same performance?
No. I have one but I haven't tried it yet. Of course, everyone says you need to upgrade the PS on the regen so who knows.
I use mine with the stock PS. It makes the Macbook an amazing server. If you use with your PC it will be certainly an upgrade.
I have the Regen on my CAPS v3 and I can't tell the difference. I haven't upgraded the power supply though.
It is very much DAC dependent. The SMPS may also offset any advantage the Regen is producing.
You can start just with the Teradak linear ATX (which is around $800 shipped right now - I'm sure Mike knows the numbers) or even with the HD-Plex signle rail one, and add SSD battery PSU and Jcat card +5V PSU at the later date.
the Uptone JS-2 LPS has 2 outputs so it can power both the J-CAT USB card for the Komputer and the Regen (for the Trinity dac) which is how I use it. the Regen does not seem to help the GG, so I have an extra Regen just sitting here.
Hmm, I need to do something to improve my digital. I can't bare to listen to it - it's glassy and edgy sounding and the blackground is not black. Part of that is my DAC, but I have tried other DACs and never really had great success.
I have a CAPS v3 but the battery power supply to the USB card died years ago and I was unable to find a replacement battery. I tried the Regen with stock power supply and it made no difference.
Sounds like I might want to consider replacing the USB card and get a matching battery supply for it. Either that or try an Aurender N10 to replace my CAPS (although I do like the flexibility that comes with a PC).
Thoughts?
my 'guess' is that the dac is the biggest step. you can somewhat 'hotrod' an ordinary CPU to improve it and there are many reasonable priced solutions. but a high quality dac is still where the rubber hits the road. particularly with PCM most dacs don't cut it. that is the source of your 'edgy' comments. PCM done right is not that way. but to overcome PCM nastiness without losing the musical energy gets expensive.
find the dac first. your server has to work with the dac......not the other way around.
my Trinity dac was still magical on my 5 year old CPU. there was no edge at all. the new CAPSv4 Pipeline 'hot-rodded' with the added LPS's did take things further, but the dac did the heavy lifting.
Surely this means you have the wrong DAC for your system - my digital has been enjoyable and capable of black background, even when compared to the Forsell and SME30, since a few years ago.
IMHO great digital is a system approach, not a single equipment property. At the time I owned an Audio Research CD8, the biggest improvement in digital was bringing the ARC Anniversary Reference preamplifier in the system.
Again IMHO you should listen to digital sources in your system until you find one that pleases you, then you can think about fine tuning and optimizing it. No fine tuning, server or teaks can compensate for a poor match. Many people with excellent systems say great thinks about the PB, I am sure it is a good DAC, but when I had it in my system for little time it sounded boring. I always found more difficult to integrate a DAC in a system optimized for analog than the inverse - digital seems to have a very low bandwidth in terms of optimum integration.
Hi Ian Lampi is the best dac but I have heard Kronos Ltd and digital can't match that tone of violin, brass, baritone vocals if you are a classical lover so if you have a good LP collection and don't mind the rituals of vinyl, don't both, get a cheap dac to stream spotify to find music you can then order LPs for.
I've had a number of DACs in my system and while none of them could reproduce a violin properly (lack of texture and lot of SHARP frequencies), I don't necessarily care because I have my analog for that.
However, most cannot replicate classic rock or pop without sounding homogenized and glassy - generally not pleasant unless the recording is absolutely stellar. More often than not it sends my wife out of the room.
Some of the DACs I've had were:
Berkeley Reference
MSB Analog
MSB Dac V
Lumin A1
Lampi B7
And of course my Plackback Designs MPD-5.
I can't help but feel that the delivery system must be part of the problem. Besides, I can't afford a Trinity...
Thanks for your thoughts, though.
Lampi keeps improving as you learn how to make it work, recently I almost doubled how well it sounded by adding KR 242 valves, and Bill had a big change by getting R2R PCM. Pity about the demo and the jriver set up, but if you can listen to a R2Red Lampi now, do try again.
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