Lampizator announcement: launch of our all new TOTL HORIZON DAC

[Sampajanna]

Ill look into those. What have you compared them to?

Enjoy the day. I just listened to the new JGB vol 18. Old keystone set with Merl’s weird, but cool sound. Fun indeed!

 

[dminches]

Ill look into those. What have you compared them to?

Enjoy the day. I just listened to the new JGB vol 18. Old keystone set with Merl’s weird, but cool sound. Fun indeed!

I compared them to the KT170s and like them a tad better. I prefer both to anything else I have tried including KT88s by KR Audio and GEC.

GL18 is top notch. The 73-74 Garcia Saunders time period is the pinnacle for them.

 

[LampiNA]

I am thrilled to bring home the Horizon DAC today after the Pacific Audio Show. Thanks Fred and Lukasz!

Quick impressions after install, compared to Pacific DAC: More tonal density, smoother flow, voices sound more human with better articulation. Lower noise floor. Overall feels like a major system upgrade Looking forward to completing the burn-in!

How are you liking the Graphite Audio footers underneath it?

We found those IC-35s to be a big uptick in the Acora room on Thursday night when we put them in before show day--definitely will be bringing those with us to shows going forward.

 

[sugama]

How are you liking the Graphite Audio footers underneath it?

We found those IC-35s to be a big uptick in the Acora room on Thursday night when we put them in before show day--definitely will be bringing those with us to shows going forward.

The footers are a very complementary addition to the Horizon. Better transients, and more stable imaging is what I perceived. Will do more testing once Horizon is fully broken in.

 

[Sampajanna]

I bought the same footers. How can a Horizon buyer turn down what Lukasz himself is calling a “bigger upgrade than tubes.”

 

[CKKeung]

From the Lampizator dealer in Taiwan :

 

[Sampajanna]

Nice! Just wondering about logistics

 

[ctydwn]

Beautiful video (will try to block out why I do not have 4 speaker towers, 2 Horizons and a Pacific to boot).
Been listening to the Horizon the past 3 hours. Received the Horizon a month ago. It's fully broken in.
Tonight's tube combo: Tak 274B, TS KT170s, 5687s w/ Woo adapters. Also, all broken in.

Switched to DAC direct to amps for first time tonight (including xlrs from sub direct to Horizon) - taking out the $36k linestage hooked up with Odin2 pc and Ics. (Thank you Rob for the nudge!)

Immediately, the clarity, resolution, pace and slam that I have been craving (since moving away from the Pacific w/ KR RK 242s) returned. I n c r e d i b l e. Pacific direct to amps did not yield these same results for me however (preamp was still preferred in the chain).

Sounds like there has been mixed results among Horizon owners using a linestage or not. Worth trying regardless. I understand the volume control on the Horizon runs through the tubes, which is the only Lampizator DAC that does this. Can't claim to understand. I could not get these results engaging the VC while still running the preamp in the path. But going direct, wow. Hats off to this incredible DAC which offers a linestage that can help pay for itself. And this true here running at ~90 db-c average.

Will I miss saturation or body that an external linestage can provide? Will swap back and forth tomorrow night. Currently, no.
(Herbie's tube dampers arriving this week as well.)

Take care everyone and thank you for all the invaluable info on this and the tube rolling thread.

 

[christoph]

Switched to DAC direct to amps for first time tonight (including xlrs from sub direct to Horizon)

Congrats on the great results

I guess you are going via XLR into your mono amps?

Is the Horizon XLR Sub-out just an additional (parallel) full range XLR out or is the Sub-out frequency filtered in any way?
I guess it is rather fullrange...?

 

[Sampajanna]

In Da house!

 

[Lukasz "Lampizator" Fikus]

Congrats on the great results

I guess you are going via XLR into your mono amps?

Is the Horizon XLR Sub-out just an additional (parallel) full range XLR out or is the Sub-out frequency filtered in any way?
I guess it is rather fullrange...?

SUB XLR must be full range because the sub does the filtering.

 

[christoph]

SUB XLR must be full range because the sub does the filtering.

Thank you for your answer, Lukasz.
That makes absolute sense and is also, what I expected.

Please let me add some more questions regarding the Horizon Outputs:

- Does the SUB XLR-out require the whole tube complement to be inserted like the normal XLR-out?

- Can the SUB XLR-out also be combined with the SE-out?

- Can all outputs (Balanced XLR, SE RCA and the Sub XLR) be used simultaneously or are there restrictions on what can be used at the same time?

Thanks in advance

 

[Steve williams]

Beautiful video (will try to block out why I do not have 4 speaker towers, 2 Horizons and a Pacific to boot).
Been listening to the Horizon the past 3 hours. Received the Horizon a month ago. It's fully broken in.
Tonight's tube combo: Tak 274B, TS KT170s, 5687s w/ Woo adapters. Also, all broken in.

Switched to DAC direct to amps for first time tonight (including xlrs from sub direct to Horizon) - taking out the $36k linestage hooked up with Odin2 pc and Ics.

Immediately, the clarity, resolution, pace and slam that I have been craving (since moving away from the Pacific w/ KR RK 242s) returned. I n c r e d i b l e. Pacific direct to amps did not yield these same results for me however (preamp was still preferred in the chain).

Sounds like there has been mixed results among Horizon owners using a linestage or not. Worth trying regardless. I understand the volume control on the Horizon runs through the tubes, which is the only Lampizator DAC that does this. Can't claim to understand. I could not get these results engaging the VC while still running the preamp in the path. But going direct, wow. Hats off to this incredible DAC which offers a linestage that can help pay for itself. And this true here running at ~90 db-c average.

Will I miss saturation or body that an external linestage can provide? Will swap back and forth tomorrow night. Currently, no.
(Herbie's tube dampers arriving this week as well.)

Take care everyone and thank you for all the invaluable info on this and the tube rolling thread.

I used and loved that tube combination. Simply beautiful until Dminches convinced me to use the TS 6SN7 GT VT231 with round plate. I found an NOS set and it was like a 5687 on steroids. I found 2 more set NIB if this tube and have been using it ever since that day.

 

[ctydwn]

I used and loved that tube combination. Simply beautiful until Dminches convinced me to use the TS 6SN7 GT VT231 with round plate. I found an NOS set and it was like a 5687 on steroids. I found 2 more set NIB if this tube and have been using it ever since that day.

2 pairs of TS 6SN7 GT VT231s NOS en route to me. Need to hear what all the fuss is about . And I definitely don’t want to know how much more I paid for them

 

[Steve williams]

2 pairs of TS 6SN7 GT VT231s NOS en route to me. Need to hear what all the fuss is about . And I definitely don’t want to know how much more I paid for them

David has indeed cost me a lot of $$$ but where I am now is where I can live for a very long time. In my room with my equipment this tube set brings out the best of everything Bottom line is David knows his tubes

I have gone from

6900 with Woo adapters ———>Thomson 5687 with Woo adapters ———->TS 6SN7 GT VT231 Round plate ( no adapters needed)

I love the TS KT170 and the Taki 274B

I have back ups of all of these because this post likely just made this tube unobtainium.

 

[Sampajanna]

1 day in and all I can say is …….. speechless. I will try to say something but it is hard.

I didnt think “better” was possible, as I loved the Pac so much. This Horizon is better indeed. Deeper and richer soundstage, more insturment separation, way better bass (more controlled) and everything seems more refined, airy and smooth. It feels like when you switch to a more powerful amp and have more headroom. Space around everything. The soundstage didnt change in width (if anything the Pac was slightly wider), but it is much deeper and more layered. That is the biggest difference for me, Those waiting in the queue: be patient. It is worth it!!!

Still need to roll tubes, but want to let it settle first…. Also, tested the feet that Lukasz recommends and sells. They are epic. Better than my much more expensive isolators. Definitely a must for Horizon owners….

 

[Steve williams]

1 day in and all I can say is …….. speechless. I will try to say something but it is hard.

I didnt think “better” was possible, as I loved the Pac so much. This Horizon is better indeed. Deeper and richer soundstage, more insturment separation, way better bass (more controlled) and everything seems more refined, airy and smooth. It feels like when you switch to a more powerful amp and have more headroom. Space around everything. The soundstage didnt change in width (if anything the Pac was slightly wider), but it is much deeper and more layered. That is the biggest difference for me, Those waiting in the queue: be patient. It is worth it!!!

Still need to roll tubes, but want to let it settle first…. Also, tested the feet that Lukasz recommends and sells. They are epic. Better than my much more expensive isolators. Definitely a must for Horizon owners….

You’re only one day in. Let’s talk again in a few weeks about the sound stage width. You have many more gains to come

 

[Lukasz "Lampizator" Fikus]

I made an interesting observation. For some reason I was preampless for a couple of days and I needed to test the outgoing DACs using only my monoblocks, and the DACS Baltic 3 were without volume control. so I tried for the first time ever the digital volume in my ROON.
(works for PCM only).
Going straight from fully open DAC to the powerful 300WPC monos is a bit tricky as it requires caution and proper sequence of powering up and down. But in the end - this hot direct connection results in a very attractive sound. Powerful, clean and clear, dynamic, and "nice". It is frankly speaking addictive. Same applies to the Horizon used at 63.

In some circles the use of digital volume is a no-no, but I am not some circle - I believe what I test and what I hear. And mathematically speaking the digital volume and analog volume are exactly the same (doesnt mean SOUND the same) but in both cases we loose potential max resolution which is natural and normal in EVERY volume process because when we decrease volume, we loose the lowest level info, that disappears in the black hole of our hearing limits.

So in summary - it sounds great and you owe it to yourself to try it.

 

[Sampajanna]

Day 3= a nice bump in SQ. Things opened up quite notceablly today.

 

[DSG Rob]

Beautiful video (will try to block out why I do not have 4 speaker towers, 2 Horizons and a Pacific to boot).
Been listening to the Horizon the past 3 hours. Received the Horizon a month ago. It's fully broken in.
Tonight's tube combo: Tak 274B, TS KT170s, 5687s w/ Woo adapters. Also, all broken in.

Switched to DAC direct to amps for first time tonight (including xlrs from sub direct to Horizon) - taking out the $36k linestage hooked up with Odin2 pc and Ics. (Thank you Rob for the nudge!)

Immediately, the clarity, resolution, pace and slam that I have been craving (since moving away from the Pacific w/ KR RK 242s) returned. I n c r e d i b l e. Pacific direct to amps did not yield these same results for me however (preamp was still preferred in the chain).

Sounds like there has been mixed results among Horizon owners using a linestage or not. Worth trying regardless. I understand the volume control on the Horizon runs through the tubes, which is the only Lampizator DAC that does this. Can't claim to understand. I could not get these results engaging the VC while still running the preamp in the path. But going direct, wow. Hats off to this incredible DAC which offers a linestage that can help pay for itself. And this true here running at ~90 db-c average.

Will I miss saturation or body that an external linestage can provide? Will swap back and forth tomorrow night. Currently, no.
(Herbie's tube dampers arriving this week as well.)

Take care everyone and thank you for all the invaluable info on this and the tube rolling thread.

You're very welcome Tom! Very happy to hear your results.
Look forward to getting an Horizon myself (after all my customers receive their orders first).