I after several promises that he would honor the purchase, several will be done by dates, followed by an attempted bait and switch, Lukasz, without telling me personally, has through PayPal, refunded my money. Over a thousand dollars in tubes purchased which are now of no use to me, and an apparent loss due to the exchange rate, and all I have to show for it is evidence that Lukasz isn't to be trusted. Hardly the outcome I was looking for. So, I am really not interested in dealing with Lampizator, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Therefore I am in search of a DAC, hopefully in the 4K range that someone has had first hand knowledge of that can go head to head against the better Lampizators.
In search of a DAC which sounds excellent.
- Thread starter L3RD
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Holo Audio May KTE is insanely good for that price range
Thanks, I'm not so sure about this. I have a Spring 3 KTE, and my OG Yggdrasil is a shade better. They say that the May is a shade better than the Yggdrasil. Have you compared the May to something like the Baltic 3 or better?
Hi there, I have no personal experience with the Musician Aquarius, but it has reviewed very well. It is also well below your $4000 budget at $3200. Might be worth looking into.
Thanks, I think I am going to roll the dice on something, but I'll look into this. Thanks!
I am using an Acuhorn R2R T which is easier better than a Abbas Audio PCM dac in a head to head, and astonishingly transparent and neutral sounding.
It uses a Soekris R2R board, a very sophisticated DC-DC solid state power supply and switchable DHT tube output. I'm using WE300B replica currently.
Highly recommended.
It uses a Soekris R2R board, a very sophisticated DC-DC solid state power supply and switchable DHT tube output. I'm using WE300B replica currently.
Highly recommended.
Nice DAC, it's a bit steep unfortunately. I found something on the used market. I probably should have been more patient. We'll see.
As much as I didn't want to, I purchased a used Lampizator. That's right, laugh away. I don't like the architect, but it's difficult to argue with his results from all reports.
I couldn't find the BEST300B that wanted, and the Baltics are so high used that you may as well buy new, so I bought a DAC 3. The seller used it for headphones, has the Horizon I believe in his main system. Said it used it in his main system and was surprised how close they were in sound. I know how to wire a 6X5 socket to take a 6BY5, which doubles the current and really makes 6SN7s sing. I don't know if the current transformer can handle this load, so I'll likely replace it in the circuit, but it's likely just a tap off of a larger transformer, so I won't be able to physically replace it! Anyway, the price was right, and while it still renders my 300B tubes useless, it is what it is. I just wish I had been able to either be more patient, or able to find another brand of comparable DAC. My old ways still haunt me. We had a saying in the service; "Do something, do the right thing, do the wrong thing, but do something." Different situation, but it seems imbedded into my psyche now. The idea though is simple, if you don't act, the enemy will, he who responds dances to the oppositions dance. Playing defense is losing. It permeated everything though, not so sure that had survived all of the politics though. In war gaming, even though we should win, the flag officers are like McClellan was in the Civil War, too timid and too unwilling to take the requisite losses it takes to win in war gaming a war with China... Anyway, that's the how and why of it for the most part.
No laughing. I am quite familiar with Lampizators. Some I liked, some less so. I will this weekend be comparing my Ayon Skylla 2 DAC to a Lampizator Golden Atlantic TRP that has been tube optimized (to the owners preference of course). Should be an interesting comparison. I might also take my inexpensive (but truly excellent sounding ) Monarchy Audio M24 DAC that uses BB PCM63K chips and nary a transistor to be found (even the IV conversion is done with a single resistor).
Oooh, that sounds nice, though honestly those chips are packed full of transistors, but so are the Lampizator Soekris chip(s) in the Lampizator. It's difficult to completely escape semiconductors... The Monarchy sounds pretty interesting, but you prefer the Ayon even more! After I tossed in Chris VenHaus' latest cables, even my little Yggdrasil is sounding pretty good. I did try what was to be Its replacement, a Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE, but it still wasn't quite able to keep up.
I've compared May KTE to upgraded Mojo Audio Mystique Evo and Berkeley Audio Alpha Reference 2, I would keep the May KTE. I don't know how audiophile math translates, but people broadly report the OG Denafrips Terminator to be better than Yaggy, and the Mojo was better than the Denafrips while May KTE is better than the Mojo. Spring 3 is a different model DAC altogether, that's like using DCS Bartok's performance to approximate Vivaldi.
I haven't compared it to Lampizator, but I have auditioned the Pacific and there are aspects of it that are amazing, but there are also aspects where it falls short. I will say though, the degree to which you will be able to take advantage of higher end dacs is bottlednecked by the rest of your system. The system should be commensurate with the upgrade.
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