Introducing the LampizatOr Poseidon DAC

Johnax said:

I am a very happy owner of the Poseidon DAC for several months now. I don’t post often on WBF, but I love reading these threads so thanks to all who do post. I’ve been upgrading my rig so maybe I’ll post more going forward.

My question is how can I figure out which tubes are used in which configuration? Does using Bypass mode effect which tubes are in use? Does it make a difference which output is used, meaning RCA versus XLR? I realize there is good information in the Poseidon user manual on the tube positioning (page 5), but unfortunately I am not technically inclined enough to know what it means. The manual does say, “It is possible and allowed to listen to one phase only if you use a single ended amplifier. Simply remove the tubes you don’t need.” This suggests that not all tubes are in use for every configuration.

The reason I ask is until today I been using the Poseidon in Bypass mode with another preamp. Then today I decided to try going directly into the amps using the Poseidon for volume control. I made the switch and suddenly I wasn’t getting sound from one speaker. After some troubleshooting I tracked down a bad EL6 tube which I had purchased on eBay and used with Laszlo’s EL6 -> 6j5/L63 tube adapters in place of the 6j5 tubes. To be clear the bad tube wasn’t from Laszlo but from a seller on eBay. Fortunately I bought 5 of them so I swapped in the spare and bingo sound from both speakers using Poseidon for volume control. I did switch from XLR outputs into my preamp to RCA outputs direct to my amp because I did not have a long enough XLR cable.

But I wonder why I wasn’t having any problem in bypass mode with the bad EL6 tube in? That suggests to me that the tube wasn’t utilized in bypass mode? Unless it just happened to fail when I made the switch. Any insight into clarifying which tubes are used for what purpose in the Poseidon would be appreciated.

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Anyoldears said:

Slightly off your original topic, but on topic for the thread... How do the EL6 tubes compare to the tubes you got with the Poseiden? What did you get with it GEC L63s?

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Johnax said:

I received the GEC L63 tubes with my Poseidon. I then purchased adapters with the EL6 tubes from Laszlo. I thought the EL6 tubes made an immediate and noticeable improvement in the sound. More detail, wider soundstage, better imaging is what I recall. However, I also upgraded the 6N1P tubes at the same time, each 6N1P tube replaced by a pair of mini tubes in an adapter also from Laszlo. So I’m not sure how much improvement came from the EL6 versus the minis.

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Johnax said:

I received the GEC L63 tubes with my Poseidon. I then purchased adapters with the EL6 tubes from Laszlo. I thought the EL6 tubes made an immediate and noticeable improvement in the sound. More detail, wider soundstage, better imaging is what I recall. However, I also upgraded the 6N1P tubes at the same time, each 6N1P tube replaced by a pair of mini tubes in an adapter also from Laszlo. So I’m not sure how much improvement came from the EL6 versus the minis.

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Johnax said:

Thank you. I will likely want to confirm compatibility with the Poseidon first though.

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