Golden Gate DAC arrives.

[wisnon]

What a great review , Audiophile Bill, thank you.
Talking numbers I calculated the advantage you granted to GG over Big 7- it's 7,4 %
The question is whether this difference worth to pay around 12 k euro more for GG?

Your numbers are way off! The S.E. B7 is about €9K and the SE GG Dac is about €14K. In the US its about $11K to $17K retail.

 

[wisnon]

Hi Fellow Audiophiles,

I have written a review of the Golden Gate that you might be interested in. It is fairly lengthy and has images and so I uploaded it onto a blog - I hope that you find this of interest.

https://audiophilebill.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/lampizator-golden-gate/

Best regards,

Bill

So well written! Beats the pants off many pro reviews out there.

 

[marslo]

Your numbers are way off! The S.E. B7 is about €9K and the SE GG Dac is about €14K. In the US its about $11K to $17K retail.

Ok, maybe I am wrong about GG prices , I knew only the price of GG bal which is around 20 k euro. But based on your info the question remains whether it worth to pay 5 k euro more for GG SE ?

 

[wisnon]

Ok, maybe I am wrong about GG prices , I know only the price of GG bal which is around 20 k euro. But based on your info the question remains whether it worth to pay 5 k euro more for GG SE ?

Fair enough..however, the Bal with all the options should still be around €19K, I think. Basic Bal is €17K or so.

Is it worth the difference, I dont know yet (for myself). However, it has costlier parts and even Bill's scoring is premature as the GG has a notoriously long break in time...up to 5 months to hit peak. Comparing a 2 week old GG to a well broken in B7 is not quite fair to the GG's true potential. So far Bill has quantified at 7.4%, but the normal subjective difference owners tout online is about 15% when broken in... that is BIG in the diminishing returns audio world.

 

[bonzo75]

Ok, maybe I am wrong about GG prices , I know only the price of GG bal which is around 20 k euro. But based on your info the question remains whether it worth to pay 5 k euro more for GG SE ?

I for one am not going to upgrade because I am quite happy to have the second best digital in the world

On that, do B7 owners think adding Mundorf caps in the power supply, Teflon tube sockets, and furutech sockets (which I already have) will upgrade performance much? I don't need those roller ball feet anyway. So ok, I won't have the copper case.

 

[marslo]

I am quite happy to have the second best digital in the world "

+ 1
I am not "Addicted to best" , I am fine with " good enough". Having already 3 grand children and expecting one more I am rather addicted to best price/quality ratio, not only in audio.

 

[wisnon]

I for one am not going to upgrade because I am quite happy to have the second best digital in the world

On that, do B7 owners think adding Mundorf caps in the power supply, Teflon tube sockets, and furutech sockets (which I already have) will upgrade performance much? I don't need those roller ball feet anyway. So ok, I won't have the copper case.

Then you have vishay foils as well as hybrid bypassed caps, more and better chokes, and many other tweaks. Again, cant say if its worth it sonically yet, but the rumbling so far online is yes...

As to sticking with B7, its not like you are suffering, so I totally understand what you and Marslo say.

 

[bonzo75]

I am quite happy to have the second best digital in the world "

+ 1
I am not "Addicted to best" , I am fine with " good enough".

The thing is when I upgraded from Level 5 to Big 7, I jumped over many of the SOTA digital at a very low price - I no more care for the brands in the rest of the digital section. However, upgrading from Big 7 to GG is going to help me jump across...hang on...Big 7. And I will still keep visiting this thread. Sure, if I jumped across SOTA TTs or R2R tape decks, then it would have been worth it. The other key thing is that I found my L5 to B7 upgrade to add much more to my system than preamp/amp upgrades, and I have since tried Jadis, NAT audio, VAC 300b, etc. The influence of that B7 has been more

 

[spiritofmusic]

The thing is when I upgraded from Level 5 to Big 7, I jumped over many of the SOTA digital at a very low price - I no more care for the brands in the rest of the digital section. However, upgrading from Big 7 to GG is going to help me jump across...hang on...Big 7. And I will still keep visiting this thread. Sure, if I jumped across SOTA TTs or R2R tape decks, then it would have been worth it. The other key thing is that I found my L5 to B7 upgrade to add much more to my system than preamp/amp upgrades, and I have since tried Jadis, NAT audio, VAC 300b, etc. The influence of that B7 has been more

The source comes first.

 

[marslo]

SOM,

Something went wrong with editing, this is what bonzo said, but I agree with him.

 

[bonzo75]

Then you have vishay foils as well as hybrid bypassed caps, more and better chokes, and many other tweaks. Again, cant say if its worth it sonically yet, but the rumbling so far online is yes...

As to sticking with B7, its not like you are suffering, so I totally understand what you and Marslo say.

Personally I think it must be. Each of Lukasz upgrades from 5, 6, 7 have been worth it, so no reason why GG shouldn't, but he spoiled my expectation barrier based on the jump from 6 to 7. He has always been known to provide high VFM, so I don't see him charging prices for the heck of it because the opposite has been his philosophy. Even on his website, he has been so open regarding his server - "There is no rocket science in our Komputer. Anybody can, and really SHOULD make such one for himself" - that is ethics.

Those who have followed him for a few years knows he does not get easily excited - which is why I would like to know why he is more excited about his amps than his dac. I haven't heard them but that is the main reason I would like to.

ps: Just saw that he has credited Elberoth for the Komputer specs on his website - Great

 

[Argonaut]

I would be most interested in any considerations with regard to the relative merits, in the realm of the purely audible, of the Single ended Vs Ballanced GG's, Notwithstanding the fully balanced capability of my ancillary equipment, and considering the relative RRP of the two models, In essence, may one quite happily live with the % difference in audibility Vs RRP?

 

[bonzo75]

I would be most interested in any considerations with regard to the relative merits, in the realm of the purely audible, of the Single ended Vs Ballanced GG's, Notwithstanding the fully balanced capability of my ancillary equipment, and considering the relative RRP of the two models, In essence, may one quite happily live with the % difference in audibility Vs RRP?

There are people like Bill and Joeinid running SE into balanced equipment who are pretty happy with their sound. Joe has a balanced but he has been running it through his RCA because his CJ Gat is SE, and he prefers to have a pre in the chain, like many, instead of running it direct balanced. Of course, since you have a complete balanced system, in future you might want to consider an upgrade. Always good to be long optionality.

ps: I give Bill a year max to upgrade

 

[microstrip]

I would be most interested in any considerations with regard to the relative merits, in the realm of the purely audible, of the Single ended Vs Ballanced GG's, Notwithstanding the fully balanced capability of my ancillary equipment, and considering the relative RRP of the two models, In essence, may one quite happily live with the % difference in audibility Vs RRP?

Do you know of any site where I can see how the balanced mode is implemented in the GG?

 

[Argonaut]

Thank you for your considerations bonzo, I quite appreciate the difficult nature of my query, in that, perhaps only a couple of folk 'out there' would be in a position to offer an opinion derived from practical experience.

Micro... I do not unfortunately, however Unless corrected I believe the circuit to be of true balanced topology.

 

[bonzo75]

Thank you for your considerations bonzo, I quite appreciate the difficult nature of my query, in that, perhaps only a couple of folk 'out there' would be in a position to offer an opinion derived from practical experience.

Just nudging you to be the next one so the rest of us have more data points

 

[bonzo75]

Do you know of any site where I can see how the balanced mode is implemented in the GG?

From what I know it doubles the number of triodes and output tubes. It is not just adding XLR output - wisnon knows more, probably. No balancing signal transformers or op-amp signal cloners, but Quad-Mono design

 

[wisnon]

Thank you for your considerations bonzo, I quite appreciate the difficult nature of my query, in that, perhaps only a couple of folk 'out there' would be in a position to offer an opinion derived from practical experience.

Micro... I do not unfortunately, however Unless corrected I believe the circuit to be of true balanced topology.

Mike B of Audioshark runs the Bal GG direct to the 211 amps...ask him what he thinks. Bal has an even larger soundstage and lower noise floor, if the whole chain is fully balanced.

 

[wisnon]

From what I know it doubles the number of triodes and output tubes. It is not just adding XLR output - wisnon knows more, probably. No balancing signal transformers or op-amp signal cloners, but Quad-Mono design

Yes, this is my understanding too. Balanced from the PCM chip output legs and dual mono DSD. Fully internally balanced...double components.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

So well written! Beats the pants off many pro reviews out there.

Thanks for kind comment, Norman!