How to start this post regarding Horizon and in general not copy/paste all accolades that already have been mentioned/written in hundred plus pages of this thread. I guess quite a difficult task this will be. I personally knew for the Horizon project for quite some time, being even pre pandemic times (before Skynet took over), and once driving with my dear friend Norman aka
@wisnon we’ve even contemplated about the name proposal which obviously was not “Horizon”
, but we still believe it was a nice contender (at least)
. Based on Yoda extreme enthusiasm at a time, we knew that he was cooking something exceptional.
Fast forward almost three years (cannot believe they passed so quick after the ordeal we witnessed and are still witnessing) and mouse gray aluminum heavy weight work of art is sitting calmly on my shelf (good feeling I must admit). I don’t have to, but I will repeat, that I’ve been lucky enough to live with quite a nice number of Lampi DACs in the previous period and I heard probably all of them in my own system so from that perspective I can say that I created a nice picture how particular DAC performs and in which “group” I could place it. I also need to state that his DACs made of me a tube collecting/rolling junkie which at the end of the day is a beautiful thing. Never will a transistor (kudos to them anyhow) put a smile on my face like inserting a 100-year-old tube collecting dust for decades and upon pressing a power ON button, starting to make a beautiful music. It is just like boundaries of time and space are gone and magic starts (reads a bit like fairytale and sometimes we do need them
).
Going back to Horizon, it is absolutely clear on the first lifting of the flight case that many (all) things have been massively re-worked vs other units in portfolio starting from packaging, design of the chassis, quality of the chassis and color selection. What is inside of the unit I will not even mention as I’m not competent to comment but reading and seeing the tube complement this has too be the case as well. Design as such of course should not be discussed as we all have different taste, but I find Horizon gorgeous looking on pictures and even more in situ. Also, I kind of don’t pay attention too much on the rear panels but this one on Horizon I find just plain phenomenal and powerful looking. Nixie tubes also have their specific charm and with the buttons below in my mind create a nice “smile” emoticon. Selection of possible tube options to try out in Horizon is just mind boggling and one needs to keep his junkie habit of hoarding the tubes well on the leash not to get overly crazy and thanks God here I believe I did quite a good job with myself. So, in terms of pentodes, I got KT170, El156, EL51 and F2A quads on hand thanks to my great buddies in Zurich (extreme tube hoarders for TRP) while double triodes I would say I have majority of top ones excluding TS 6sn7 round plates and Bendix 6900 which to be honest I even won’t chase. Rectifiers I’m not mentioning as my head starts to spin instantly.
DAC as such is still well into burning in process but it became clear after initial several songs that all the raving from Yoda was genuine and to be completely frank, I never heard him raving about his products on this level while I would describe him as a quite humble and down to earth person. So, in all his raving there was a lot of meat on the bone. I personally find Horizon as a best blend of virtues his other DACs possess in terms of dynamics, details retrieval, slam, stage presentation, how deep it digs in terms of LF but as well as how high it can go with HF spectrum. All these attributes are nicely blended/wrapped with beautiful tonality that whenever listening I’m just craving for more and more and more music which to me is super important. I would say it does not draw attention to anything specific except ease of presentation and musicality, so there is no fatigue or whatever like that during long hours of listening that being “real” listening or just as a background music going on. Tube wise I tried quite a few and fil rouge for Horizon is that it sounds sublime with any tube I tried. I did not pay specific attention to details in this regard for time being, but few types stood out (mainly aligned with opinions in rolling thread) while for this occasion this is not too relevant.
To wrap up in one word, which I already used in tube rolling thread – it is a Masterpiece of a DAC in my honest opinion and I wish that whoever has a chance to hear it does so – it will not let you down.
@dminches - I hope I'm forgiven now
