Anyone Using A Lampizator Golden Gate (with volume control) Directly Into Your Power Amp?

[Highlander]

I spent the last nine weeks researching preamplifiers to death. I talked to everyone from known audio reviewers, to distributors, to owners of prominent brick and mortar audio stores, to primary audio forum experts, to friends I had made in the industry and also some well heeled audiophiles I had access to that have bought, demoed and sold as many as twenty or more preamps each.



In the end, I had a list of what, ideally, I would look for, on sale used (to allow some affordability). The other night, one in the most desirable grouping appeared, and in mint condition, original owner, all packaging, accessores etc. available, and with a new set of NOS tubes. The price was also more than fair. I quickly purchased the unit, and am having to bide my time until the owner gets back from his extended New Year's trip to his cabin in the mountains on January 6th. He will ship the next day, Monday, the 7th.



This is a very rarely found preamp, that also "completely coincidentally" will match beautifully with my amplifier,. The preamp in question? The Conrad Johnson ACT2. This is referred to as, essentially, a one chassis version of the fabled, ultra limited, and ungodly expensive, ART2 preamp. I was very fortunate to have this fall into my lap, and, based on the Conrad Johnson expertise I had available to me, including an incredibly knowledgeable former CJ distributor, and people within CJ itself, it should not only be a superb preamp, but a great match with my Golden Gate. It's also, in my opinion, a stunningly attractive piece of gear, so bonus there. I can't wait until I receive the delivery and cant connect things up.



Review link included:



https://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/305cj/index.html

 

[christoph]

I spent the last nine weeks researching preamplifiers to death. I talked to everyone from known audio reviewers, to distributors, to owners of prominent brick and mortar audio stores, to primary audio forum experts, to friends I had made in the industry and also some well heeled audiophiles I had access to that have bought, demoed and sold as many as twenty or more preamps each.



In the end, I had a list of what, ideally, I would look for, on sale used (to allow some affordability). The other night, one in the most desirable grouping appeared, and in mint condition, original owner, all packaging, accessores etc. available, and with a new set of NOS tubes. The price was also more than fair. I quickly purchased the unit, and am having to bide my time until the owner gets back from his extended New Year's trip to his cabin in the mountains on January 6th. He will ship the next day, Monday, the 7th.



This is a very rarely found preamp, that also "completely coincidentally" will match beautifully with my amplifier,. The preamp in question? The Conrad Johnson ACT2. This is referred to as, essentially, a one chassis version of the fabled, ultra limited, and ungodly expensive, ART2 preamp. I was very fortunate to have this fall into my lap, and, based on the Conrad Johnson expertise I had available to me, including an incredibly knowledgeable former CJ distributor, and people within CJ itself, it should not only be a superb preamp, but a great match with my Golden Gate. It's also, in my opinion, a stunningly attractive piece of gear, so bonus there. I can't wait until I receive the delivery and cant connect things up.



Review link included:



https://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/305cj/index.html

Congrats

 

[ingemar]

Hi all.
Did any of you guyz upgrade your GG to GG II?AAnd how musch was the damage
Kindly/Ingemar

 

[bonzo75]

The cost is not much iirc. However I chose not to do it. Lukasz himself told me that if you are very happy with your Lampi, don't change it. All Golden gates have minor variations as they regularly do upgrades. If you hit a golden formula, stick to it. So if you are happy with yours (you can easily find out by comparing to another GG or any other supposedly SOTA digital), and you come back delighted, leave it as is. Else send for an upgrade. I could possibly benefit from an upgrade if I ask to leave rest as is (Caps etc) but I don't feel the need.

 

[ingemar]

Thanks for the advice Bonzo!!Maybe upgrade mine with dsd 512 instead.

 

[bonzo75]

Thanks for the advice Bonzo!!Maybe upgrade mine with dsd 512 instead.

You should compare and check. There might be a benefit might not be. The cost won't be much if the upgrade policy is still on

 

[Highlander]

Thanks for the advice Bonzo!!Maybe upgrade mine with dsd 512 instead.

I spoke to someone associated with Lampizator when I was getting mine. He told me point blank that he/they don't recommend the upgrade to 512, that it provides no value and does not, in fact, sound any better.

 

[Highlander]

The cost is not much iirc. However I chose not to do it. Lukasz himself told me that if you are very happy with your Lampi, don't change it. All Golden gates have minor variations as they regularly do upgrades. If you hit a golden formula, stick to it. So if you are happy with yours (you can easily find out by comparing to another GG or any other supposedly SOTA digital), and you come back delighted, leave it as is. Else send for an upgrade. I could possibly benefit from an upgrade if I ask to leave rest as is (Caps etc) but I don't feel the need.

Bonzo, I think you were wise to stick with your "original" Golden Gate. People who have spent time with the GG2, have told me, across the board, that the newer model has less warmth and depth and is more towards the lean and anaylitical side. The few reviewers I've seen commenting on it tend to also agree. In other words, Lukasz/you said it best "if you are very happy with your Lampi (Golden Gate) don't change it."

 

[Golum]

Bonzo, I think you were wise to stick with your "original" Golden Gate. People who have spent time with the GG2, have told me, across the board, that the newer model has less warmth and depth and is more towards the lean and anaylitical side. The few reviewers I've seen commenting on it tend to also agree. In other words, Lukasz/you said it best "if you are very happy with your Lampi (Golden Gate) don't change it."

Well I guess as always it boils down to personal taste and preference as I'm not one of those users of GG2. I love mine and i mean I LOVE it and I had GG1 but this one is just so much better. In the tube rolling thread there is a finding where we compared in one session GG1, GG2.5 and Pacific so everything is written there and you can check the conclusions.

 

[LL21]

I spent the last nine weeks researching preamplifiers to death. I talked to everyone from known audio reviewers, to distributors, to owners of prominent brick and mortar audio stores, to primary audio forum experts, to friends I had made in the industry and also some well heeled audiophiles I had access to that have bought, demoed and sold as many as twenty or more preamps each.



In the end, I had a list of what, ideally, I would look for, on sale used (to allow some affordability). The other night, one in the most desirable grouping appeared, and in mint condition, original owner, all packaging, accessores etc. available, and with a new set of NOS tubes. The price was also more than fair. I quickly purchased the unit, and am having to bide my time until the owner gets back from his extended New Year's trip to his cabin in the mountains on January 6th. He will ship the next day, Monday, the 7th.



This is a very rarely found preamp, that also "completely coincidentally" will match beautifully with my amplifier,. The preamp in question? The Conrad Johnson ACT2. This is referred to as, essentially, a one chassis version of the fabled, ultra limited, and ungodly expensive, ART2 preamp. I was very fortunate to have this fall into my lap, and, based on the Conrad Johnson expertise I had available to me, including an incredibly knowledgeable former CJ distributor, and people within CJ itself, it should not only be a superb preamp, but a great match with my Golden Gate. It's also, in my opinion, a stunningly attractive piece of gear, so bonus there. I can't wait until I receive the delivery and cant connect things up.



Review link included:



https://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/305cj/index.html

Congrats!!! Look forward to reading about your thoughts when it has settled into your system. It truly is a great preamp. Enjoy!

 

[Highlander]

Congrats!!! Look forward to reading about your thoughts when it has settled into your system. It truly is a great preamp. Enjoy!

Thank you!

 

[Derekw14]

Well... The GG continues to be my favorite thing in this hobby, and I love it more with every trip I listen to it. I would have loved to sell it off and put that money into analog, but that's not happening.

That said...i am a fan of an external pre. Highlander, maybe you are not trying preamps of a sufficiently high quality. You have to go up the model chain of preamps like AR. My favorite combo of Lampi is with any preamp where it works with the 242. This happened with the Aries cerat preamp, and Christoph from the principality of Liechtenstein uses this combo as well... So you might want to audition that preamp to check if it works with the GG and 242 in your system. If it does, hifi will become boring as you won't need to change anything after that.

In solid state, the analog domain pre works well, and I love the Soulution preamp combined with valve power amps but haven't yet tried the Lampi with it. Will do.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[Derekw14]

Did you ever hear the ART 3?

 

[bonzo75]

Did you ever hear the ART 3?

AR ref 3? Or is this something else

 

[Derekw14]

There's an CJ ART 3 on Audiogon offered for sale

 

[microstrip]

Did you ever hear the ART 3?

I owned it for several years. Great sounding preamplifier, although a bit noisy and needing frequent tube replacement - I listen a lot and good quality matched 6DJ8's were getting expensive. Finding what was the whispering 6DJ8 was a lot of trouble. It could not be used in my system with high gain and high sensitivity speakers. One of the pieces of equipment that will always stay high in my audio memories. The GAT keeps most of the good things of the ART3, has better bass and a 10 dB better signal to noise ratio. But some aspects of the ART3 were unique.

BTW, the ART3 was substantially better in all ways than the ART2.

 

[microstrip]

There's an CJ ART 3 on Audiogon offered for sale

Well, I think I sold mine boxed, used in mint condition for less than one third of the asked value ...

 

[Derekw14]

Thank you for the very informative answer! You have a Kalista which is on my dream list!

 

[wil]

I'm curious if anyone here knows if there is a sonic difference between the Pacific DAC's volume control and the earlier versions on the GG and Big 7? The vol control is a TAIV VC-04 on the Pacific and .... 03 on the earlier models.

 

[Brucemck2]

A bit off topic .... is there a Lampi that will drive not super inefficient headphones directly (HiFiMan or Abyss or Sennheiser)?