Choosing a DAC with a good VC - Lampizator Pacific vs EMM Labs DV2 vs MSB Premier

[Zappadaddy]

I love Pacific, now with new engine to make it PAC 2. What is very fascinating feature for me, and I never thought that this feature will make it interesting, is the tube rolling. I could not believe when I replaced 6cN7 with double E83F($30) with Takacz adapter what sound was coming out, so much more resolution and transparency, and that is just one tube replaced, now there are other tubes 242,45, PX25 etc and their equivalents/alternatives from many producers, then the front tube 5u4G, 274b or 5c3s, endless combination to play with. Eacch combination sounds diffrent and not just by little. Most human beings in modern society get used to great life and get bored quickly and want something better, little latter they realize that better may not be actualy better and want to return something they abadonded in the past, same thing is happening in audio, here when you want change you got it, just replace one or 2 tubes( does not cost fortune) and you have a different component and sound. This happened to me when I owned Mola Tambaqui, great dac, but was still the same, you could just play with digital cable, power cables or more costly replacements of your gear or speakers. Here you just replace tube for few dollars and you have your change. This is just incredible feature of Pacific. Pacific rules!

 

[Carlsbad]

This thread is getting to be a few months old. Have you, @NightTiger , bought a DAC yet?

I have been using my Chord Dave for volume control for a long time. I sense no differene between volume control in use and bypassed.

I just bought a Lampizator GG3 and the volume control is excellent. and using the various digital inputs, it works great as my preamp. (I don't do vinyl).

Look into the GG3.

Jerry

 

[NightTiger]

Yes, three months have passed, and no, I haven’t bought a DAC yet.
I decided to add the Lampizator Poseidon to the list for consideration and wait for reviews from first real owners, although the Poseidon is more expensive than my budget.
It was supposed to be available for order from October, and I hoped to be able to read buyers reviews in early November. Meanwhile Lukasz seems to have had a false start, the availability of Poseidon was first postponed to November, then to December, and only a few days ago I saw the first real, not demo, photos of Poseidon on Facebook.
Well, after waiting for so long, I can wait another month until several real reviews appear and decide what to buy. By the way, GG3 is also one of the options for me if I fail to get Poseidon at a price that suits me. I read that it has improved a lot compared to GG2 and sounds no worse than the first Pacific, so this is also an option. At the same time, Poseidon, as a DAC with a better preamp stage, would probably be the sweet spot of choice for me.

 

[gleeds]

I have listened to the Lampizator Poseidon extensively. We used it at the recent CAF show along with a Trafomatic Rhapsody SE integrated powering the excellent Songer Audio field coil loudspeakers. The basis of the new DAC is the Poseidon pre-amplifier Lukaz all our efforts at a state of the art line stage. Consider the Poseidon a near state of the art DAC (IMO only the Horizon bests it) with a no compromise full analog pre-amplifier built in! If you can live with the limited number of inputs you simply cannot do better.

 

[NightTiger]

If you can live with the limited number of inputs you simply cannot do better.

Thanks, I can definitely live with the amount of preamp input on Poseidon. The only negative point is the lack of an I2S digital input, I would like it to be like in the Horizon, but I can live without it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Carlsbad]

@NightTiger While conceptually I2S makes sense, it hasn't been consistently implemented through the industry and IMHO it's value is greatly exaggerated by those trying to sell coponents that have it. These same marketers have also convinced some people that USB is horrible. Trust Lampizator to implement their inputs correctly. Lately I use AES/EBU since that is the favorite of my Grimm Streamer.

 

[Phantom-Audio]

Playback Design Dreams Series

 

[Dustin Symanski]

I have spoken with you years ago about adjusting the gain. MSB use to suggest adjusting the gain. Doesn't loweing from full smooth out the sound? Takes an edge off. It seems to me, DAC technology should be good enough now you should not need to adjust volume to alter the tone. I get the OP wants to direct drive the amp. That is different from what your saying.

FWIW I had a Bel Canto dac with volume and it sucked. But that was the days of slicing the sine wave to decrease the output.

We suggest adjusting the gain not because it changes the sound of our DACs, it doesn't, its because the input circuits on many (most) preamps (and amps) have excessive distortion at higher input levels that can be significantly reduced by lowering the input voltage of the preamp... When I listen critically for development in our room I always try to get as close to full level as possible by adjusting the gain switch on our amps so as to add the least amount of noise, but our amplifiers do not add excess distortion with larger input signals so it works in this case. Gain has the unfortunate property of amplifing signal and noise together so adding the mininim amount adds the minimum amount of noise.

 

[JohnP]

I've been reading this forum for quite a long time and now it's my time to ask.

I'm looking for opinions on choosing a new DAC for my home system.
For the past couple of years I have been using a combo of the Aqua LinQ streamer and the Aqua Formula xHD Rev2 DAC. An excellent combination, I would continue to use it further, but recently I decided to do what I had long wanted, namely, instead of an integrated Manley tube amplifier, I bought two Wavac tube monoblocks.
So I now needed a preamp/remote volume control. I used to use the volume control built into the Manley amp, but now I can't.

Before the Aqua Formula DAC, I had a Lampizator Golden Atlantic DAC and I remembered how convenient it was to use its volume control, setting the proper level on the Manley amplifier and then using only the remote volume control in the DAC. Therefore, I decided, as I have only one digital source, instead of adding a preamplifier to my system to go again along the same path. That is, replace the DAC for another one, with a built-in volume control and, at the same time raising the level of the DAC, if possible.
At the moment, I can’t afford to buy a DAC which is attractive to me in new condition at full price, and therefore I plan to sell my Aqua Formula and get about 10k for it, add another 5k as a maximum and buy a DAC within 15k usd / euro on the aftermarket.

Based on what I've know about DACs and heard at some audio exhibitions, I have a shortlist of three DACs in this price range and with a good volume control (which is a must and specific of this thread):

1) Lampizator Pacific first generation (or Golden Gate 2),
2) EMM Labs DV2,
3) MSB Premier.

dCS Rossini is not on this list because the volume control isn't good enough (at least that's my impression, although I could be wrong) and the CH Precision DAC is above the target price range.

Unfortunately, where I live, it is now difficult to organize a test at home of any of these DACs through dealers. I'll try to do this through local friends, but I'm not sure how it will work.

Therefore, I am asking for opinions from those who have had the opportunity to directly compare any pair of these DACs, which of them would you prefer and why. I've owned a Lampizator GA before and liked its sound signature, but I'm trying to avoid confirmation bias when choosing a new DAC and am open to any opinions.

Regards,
Marat

Why not keep your current DAC and get an excellent preamp. A good preamp may give you better sound than a new DAC with volume control. Just my two cents.
John