Cables for Lampizator Golden Gate

[strats]

I just ordered a Lampi Golden Gate DAC (balanced with volume control). I’m looking forward to hooking it up! This is my first Lampi and I would love to get some recommendations on cables (power, USB, and XLR interconnects). This will be my setup (the Lampi will be replacing a Benchmark DAC3):

Sonic Transporter AP I7 -> Sonore Signature Rendu SE -> Lampi Golden Gate -> Pass Labs XA30.8 amp -> Pure Audio Project Trio 15 speakers with Voxativ PiFe wooden cone and Verrastar copper wire upgrades

I have 3 dedicated electrical lines. I have the DAC on one line, power amp on one line, and a Furman power conditioner on the third line (in which I’ve plugged in the Sonic Transporter, Signature Rendu, and a few other things). I have different outlets on the 3 lines. I could plug the DAC into a line with a Furutech GTX-D NCF outlet or a line with a Synergistic Research Blue outlet (the power conditioner would go into the other line).

I listen to a variety of music, but Jazz and acoustic music account for a significant portion of my listening. I listen to very little classical.

What power cords, USB cables, and XLR interconnects would you recommend for the Lampi in my setup? Thanks in advance!

 

[bonzo75]

If you have time, convert your balanced order to single ended. Once SE, you can roll tubes more easily on it, and optimizing tubes will give you way more sonic benefits. With balanced you will find it very difficult

 

[Sablon Audio]

Gautham can run just a single set of output tubes to determine his preferences

 

[bonzo75]

Gautham can run just a single set of output tubes to determine his preferences

Does that equate to the same gain and drive match as four tubes

 

[Sablon Audio]

It will represent half the gain but is a quick and easy way to establish tonality and synergy with rectifier / caps fitted etc.

 

[bonzo75]

It will represent half the gain but is a quick and easy way to establish tonality and synergy with rectifier / caps fitted etc.

I think tonality is the lesser of the issues. It is the gain, drive, noise floor that changes by coupling right to the electronics below. Of course, If half the tubes sound right with a certain combo, no need to go for all four

 

[Sablon Audio]

As GG commonly gives out 5v in single ended / rca format, way in excess of the widely used red book standard of 2v, insufficient gain is seldom an issue. This situation is then exacerbated by using out of spec tube types like KR242, which I suspect is the perspective from which you might be viewing this situation Kedar, and hence how tolerant the amplifier input impedence is of this anomaly.

Apologies to Gautham for taking his thread off at a tangent.

 

[Zero000]

As GG commonly gives out 5v in single ended / rca format, way in excess of the widely used red book standard of 2v, insufficient gain is seldom an issue. This situation is then exacerbated by using out of spec tube types like KR242, which I suspect is the perspective from which you might be viewing this situation Kedar, and hence how tolerant the amplifier input impedence is of this anomaly.

Apologies to Gautham for taking his thread off at a tangent.

Excellent post.

 

[shakti]

I just ordered a Lampi Golden Gate DAC (balanced with volume control). I’m looking forward to hooking it up! This is my first Lampi and I would love to get some recommendations on cables (power, USB, and XLR interconnects). This will be my setup (the Lampi will be replacing a Benchmark DAC3):

Sonic Transporter AP I7 -> Sonore Signature Rendu SE -> Lampi Golden Gate -> Pass Labs XA30.8 amp -> Pure Audio Project Trio 15 speakers with Voxativ PiFe wooden cone and Verrastar copper wire upgrades

I have 3 dedicated electrical lines. I have the DAC on one line, power amp on one line, and a Furman power conditioner on the third line (in which I’ve plugged in the Sonic Transporter, Signature Rendu, and a few other things). I have different outlets on the 3 lines. I could plug the DAC into a line with a Furutech GTX-D NCF outlet or a line with a Synergistic Research Blue outlet (the power conditioner would go into the other line).

I listen to a variety of music, but Jazz and acoustic music account for a significant portion of my listening. I listen to very little classical.

What power cords, USB cables, and XLR interconnects would you recommend for the Lampi in my setup? Thanks in advance!

The Polish manufacturer Bazodrut is developing the portfolio using Lampizator products as main source.
You will find the Bazodrut feets under the most Lampizator Golden Gate as standard fit,
I do use the Bazodrut Powerchord and the SPDIF digital cable.
The cables are on the more rich and warm side of tonal balance.

Wieslaw is a nice guy, but his english is limited. Good enough to process an order, but difficult do have technical discussions.

http://bazodrut.pl/?lang=en

 

[christoph]

I just ordered a Lampi Golden Gate DAC (balanced with volume control). I’m looking forward to hooking it up! This is my first Lampi and I would love to get some recommendations on cables (power, USB, and XLR interconnects).

What power cords, USB cables, and XLR interconnects would you recommend for the Lampi in my setup? Thanks in advance!

Congrats on the order of the GG

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Final Touch Audio Callisto USB cable.
Excellent performance and excellent price. The Callisto bettered some 1000$ and up cables we tried pretty clearly.
See also a review here: https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/re...l-cable/final-touch-audio-callisto-usb-cable/

I would also refrain form going balanced and order single ended instead
What tubes will you be getting along with your GG?
Will it be a GG2? I didn't know the GG1 is still available...

 

[RubenV.]

Congratz with your GG. I am using a Panatela Reserva USB Cable from Sablon Audio with great succes between my GG and audio server. Besides the product itself the customer service is also A+.

 

[marslo]

As far as usb cables are concerned -apart from very good Sablon cables- I would recommend unpowered Jcat reference ( neutral , moderatly priced), FinalTouch Audio Callisto( neutral with slightly warm timbre, medium level price) to expensive boutique Polish Apricity usb cable ( does not work with Pacific but it seems to me that no problem with GG) - outsanding soundstage and detail with rather warmer than Callisto timbre.
I have had/ have all of them.
Callisto is the sweet spot imho. I did not try Bazodrut usb cable though, only PC , it was good and moderatly priced.
For spdif I use VDH The First Ultimate mk2 which was better in my setup than much more expensive Hijiri HDG-10R cable.

 

[adamaley]

I will also recommend Sablon Audio cables. I am currently demoing Mark's King Sablon interconnects, and they soundly trounce anything I have in house. I've already told Mark that I will need to purchase these after demoing them for about a week. In addition, all my signal cables are Sablon Reserva. Very synergistic with the wonderful, natural sound the Golden Gate produces.

 

[strats]

Thanks for all the recommendations. This is really helpful. There are lots of good points, which opens up several more questions

I’m getting a GG1. It’s a second hand purchase, but of course refurbished at the factory. These are good points about going single ended. I pondered on that quite a bit myself. I asked around as well as on another forum, and it seems like Pass amps tend to sound better when using balanced inputs, although it’s not clear just how much of a difference this would make in practice. I was still thinking of going single ended. However, due to the location of the components/Pass amp in my room, it would be very difficult to place the GG near the Pass amp (I thought I could make this work, but seems unlikely). So, I would need to use interconnects that are about 4m long between the GG and the Pass amp. Lukasz had mentioned that it would be better to use cables less than 2m if going single ended, so single ended would be a problem. Now another option is to get a single ended GG without volume control and get a separate preamp that has balanced outputs (like Pass or Audio Research). However, from some of the other threads, it sounds like I would need to get a relatively expensive preamp to match or better the GG’s volume control. This would significantly add to the cost (not to mention the extra cost of cables).

With all of this and the fact that it is a second hand unit, it seemed more cost effective to go with balanced as long as I don’t have to try too many types of tubes to get a good match (a big if). Having said this, please do let me know if you think I’m missing something here.

In terms of specific tubes, from the forum posts that I have read, it seems like the KR 242 or KR PX-25 with KR 5U4G rectifier seem like the best bet. Given my setup and music preferences, what do you think? I would love to get any recommendations. Are the Riccardo Kron limited series a particularly good option?

Since I have your attention, another thing that I was wondering was any specific upgrade recommendations to the GG1. Most of my listening is from Tidal with some amount of music (all PCM) on my local server. I use Roon for everything. My understanding is that my Sonic Transporter should have no trouble upsampling to DSD512 . Do you think the DSD512 and/or R2R would be worth upgrading too? I feel like if I end up upsampling to DSD512 anyway, R2R would be moot (and vice versa) since I don’t have much native DSD tracks.

Now back to the original topic The Sablon power cords and USB cable seem great. I’ve been in touch with Mark and he has been very helpful. I was also wondering about the Lampizator cables. I haven’t seen much impressions about them. The power cords seem particularly cost effective. Has anyone tried out any of their cables? How do they compare to some of the other options? Do you know if they are CE compliant?

How bout Shunyata power cords? Has anyone tried these with a Golden Gate? The current Alpha NR and Alpha EF seem like they are in a similar price range to the Sablon entry to mid level power cords.

Thanks again!

 

[adamaley]

I have had my GG2 for about three months now, and I echo the recommendations here to go single-ended to facilitate determining the best tubes for your setup. I currently have a KR PX4, and KR 300B RK for sale for this very reason. They lost out to the KR242 in my system. They are proving somewhat difficult to sell, so I can imagine the difficulty in selling a set of quads. However, your need for balanced to overcome distance is entirely valid. Your decision will be budget-driven in that case.

Concerning upgrades, I believe you will get as many recommendations as there are available options. If funds allow, I suggest going for a fully specced GG? If you are to be selective, I believe the Superclocks to be of the utmost importance. Having them rendered my external Mutec reclocking solution redundant.

 

[bonzo75]

How bout Shunyata power cords? Has anyone tried these with a Golden Gate? The current Alpha NR and Alpha EF seem like they are in a similar price range to the Sablon entry to mid level power cords.

Thanks again!

The founder/owner of Shunyata (Cgabriel on this forum) uses Lampi

 

[Golum]

As the ex-owner of the same GG1 (Bal+VC) as you ordered, beside the cables you mentioned and the interior perks in the DAC (you've got the recommendations in general - maybe output caps to be considered) main thing are tubes. Here the knowledge on this forum is huge and you already mentioned the ones which are the best bet (and among the most expensive ones). Anyhow for recti, based on the experience, RK 5u4g was the best performing one while in GG1 KR242 was the bingo option followed by PX25 for output tubes. If you can financially manage go with KR242RK and you are done with tubes. For lowered priced good/excellent options you'll need to dive into Chinese see and here recti of the choice would be Shuguang 274b and Shuguang 300b-98b as output tubes or PSvane 300b UK design. This is of course only about the new tubes - there is a plenty of NOS ones so you can explore for sure for best performance/price ratio.

 

[strats]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! The DAC has been refurbished with a few upgrades and is on its way. I ordered a quad of RK KR242 tubes with a RK KR5U4G rectifier, and a Lampizator flagship power cord. I can’t wait to hook it up!

 

[Golum]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! The DAC has been refurbished with a few upgrades and is on its way. I ordered a quad of RK KR242 tubes with a RK KR5U4G rectifier, and a Lampizator flagship power cord. I can’t wait to hook it up!

Congrats on the DAC and you did a very nice/wise tube choice. You'll have some great time with it.

 

[heihei]

Sablon Audio's Bocchino-terminated power cable is awesome with the GG. Shunyata's USB cables are very effective also.