Lampizator announcement: launch of our all new TOTL HORIZON DAC

[steve williams]

@John T

Best of luck with the surgery. I had both done 9 years ago and for me it was life changing. You will be up walking an hour after your surgery

 

[John T]

@John T

Best of luck with the surgery. I had both done 9 years ago and for me it was life changing. You will be up walking an hour after your surgery

Thank You Steve, attempting to control my high wattage personality! Not easy, sort of like a caged leopard! When I hear good things such as what you have shared and Mark (@MarkusBarkus) also Steve Z @oldmustang it calms me down...A little...

 

[Willgolf]

@John T
I am in my third week of recovery from rotator cuff surgery. I have another month in a sling and probably three months of PT. When I had my knee replaced six years ago, I was playing golf in one month. Good luck with your surgery.
P S. - due to the surgery, I've had plenty of time to listen to music and have been rolling tubes daily, which I normally would never do. I will provide my report in the Horizont tube rolling thread soon.

 

[Willgolf]

you and i attended the launch of the horizon at steves place. We both, I think auditioned the Horizon with preamp and without. At least Idid. To my ears the Horizon was "fine" without a line stage. It was better with it. On a smaller scale I have the ability to vary the output level of my dac or put it in fixed mode. While "volume" will increase when i increase the output level it is not the same as increasing the volume control of the amplifier. Things sound best when I select the optimum output level for the dac then use the volume control to vary loudness.
iIIRC you sold your preamp/line stage and proceed without it. That is fine by me.

Thanks, Gregg... To be honest, my feeble ears could barely hear any difference at Steve's house. However, I do understand your logic. The dilemma I am having is how much SQ improvement will I achieve with a preamp. The next dilemma is which preamp. People say there is synergy in going with the same preamp brand as your amplifier. In my case, I have the option of a 28K, 50K, and 72K preamp from Aries Cerat. There are only two dealers in the United States that carry that brand. I would be buying without a demo. So between the three price points, how much SQ improvement will I really realize? The exact match to my amps is the 72K Ageto...ughhh. With all of my recent tube rolling experiments, I can change the sound of my music just by doing that. oh the problems we have in life eh!

 

[Gregadd]

God Speed Will .Spring training is starting soon. I hope you will be back on the mound by opening day.

Same amp and preamp manufacturer? Just because I make a great amp does not necessarily know-how to design an equal preamp. Moreover, tubes are better at small Signal amplification. Many manufacturers design both just to make money. For those who have the will and the know how it is a good idea. Given the audiophile mix and match approach to component selection it might a good idea to buy both from the same manufacturer. Some make components that are not necessarily designed to combine withier flagship amp or preamp.
To thine own ears be true. logic be damned. If you can't hear the difference don't bother with it. Furthermore LDR is a thing despite what others might think. If you own a Horizon that means you are trying to push the limits. That might make the expenditure worthwhile.
For such products an in home demo is essential. I am not sure how to work that out.

Note Does Lampizator have its own Manufacturers Forum//

 

[heihei]

fwiw, while I was skeptical about going direct from my Horizon to, at the time Simaudio 860a v2 monos, and I was even told by a local dealer to be skeptical, the Horizon direct obviated the need for my prior $36k Simaudio 850p preamp. There was virtually no difference. Clearly my local dealer hadn’t spent time w the Horizon. Then selling the Simaudio amps and preamp and going direct to Audionet Heisenberg monos further uped the SQ.

I must say I am still very curious how the Audionet Stern would change the equation, but for the time being, I am absolutely sold on Lukasz claim that the Horizon offers one of the best linestages out there (I do not listen to any other inputs, so makes it easier).

Further, the gain from the Heisenbergs is less than the 860s, so now at volume 1 on the Horizon, it is very quiet, quiet enough I can leave it playing all day long even while my wife works in the neighboring room. The gain on the 860s was too high.

My sweet spot volume is currently between 40 and 50 on the Horizon, depending on the track, mood etc. (One oddity, which doesn't bother me, is that 47 on the Horizon sounds louder than 48 and 49 until equalized back at 50.)

Very curious to hear from other Horizon owners that are able to do a comparison w a linestage versus direct to amp comparisons. Take good care everyone, great thread, and privileged to be part of this community.

At some point soon I will compare Horizon to Heisenbergs vs Horizon to Stern to Heisenbergs - I'll post my findings.

 

[godofwealth]

In general there are more factor at work than pure sound quality when deciding whether you need a preamp or not. In my case, I use 5-6 sources, a mixture of balanced and unbalanced, so using a Horizon or any other DAC as a preamp would never work. There’s also the issue of gain matching, overload proof inputs, impedance matching etc.

Also, I’d rather not pollute the beautiful analog output from my ARC Ref Phono 3SE by sending it through a digital device — horrors, the very thought of doing that gives me the heebie-jeebies. One does nor invest in a phono preamp of the quality of the Ref Phono 3SE and then send it through a DAC! Ugh.

 

[Holli82]

Add me to the list of happy Horizon owners. Mine arrived yesterday and I couldn't be more pleased. This is a case of the product exceeding the hype. The fit and finish are fantastic. If you are on the fence about Stardust Silver, get off now. It looks spectacular in person. Photos do not do it justice.

I have less that 10 hours on the Horizon, but it out-performs my GG2. I am struck by the amount of additional detail in the music that I was missing. Music has a "texture" to it. I feel that I can touch the notes coming from my speakers. I had planned on doing some comparisons with my GG2 but no need. Already packed it up to return to Lukasz. Can't wait to see what the break-in and tube rolling bring. I will stick with the supplied tubes for now but I am building an arsenal of tubes to roll thanks to the information here.

I would be remiss if I didn't thank Steve W. for putting together the launch party last February at his home. I got to meet some great people and hear Lukasz speak passionately about his wonderful product. I also want to thank Golum for taking time to pm me photos of the the different color schemes to help me make choice.

Finally, I want to give Fred A. a special shout-out. He has been tremendous from start to finish and absolute pleasure to work with. All e-mails, texts and phone calls were answered promptly. Lampizator has "stolen" a page out of the Von Schweikert handbook for customer service.

 

[godofwealth]

Congratulations. It looks like you are running your Horizon through a VAC preamp. Let us know how that compares with running it direct, when you get it broken in. I imagine it might take a few hundred hours for the Horizon to come on song.

 

[Sampajanna]

Congrats on Horizon!
Speedy recovery. I have had 3 knee surgeries and know all about that.

Around here, I use the horizon direct to amps and it sings gloriously. I tried a couple nice pre and found them unnecessary. This feels like a system dependent thing though and will vary greatl depending on the amps/preamp being considered.

 

[Willgolf]

Add me to the list of happy Horizon owners. Mine arrived yesterday and I couldn't be more pleased. This is a case of the product exceeding the hype. The fit and finish are fantastic. If you are on the fence about Stardust Silver, get off now. It looks spectacular in person. Photos do not do it justice.

I have less that 10 hours on the Horizon, but it out-performs my GG2. I am struck by the amount of additional detail in the music that I was missing. Music has a "texture" to it. I feel that I can touch the notes coming from my speakers. I had planned on doing some comparisons with my GG2 but no need. Already packed it up to return to Lukasz. Can't wait to see what the break-in and tube rolling bring. I will stick with the supplied tubes for now but I am building an arsenal of tubes to roll thanks to the information here.

I would be remiss if I didn't thank Steve W. for putting together the launch party last February at his home. I got to meet some great people and hear Lukasz speak passionately about his wonderful product. I also want to thank Golum for taking time to pm me photos of the the different color schemes to help me make choice.

Finally, I want to give Fred A. a special shout-out. He has been tremendous from start to finish and absolute pleasure to work with. All e-mails, texts and phone calls were answered promptly. Lampizator has "stolen" a page out of the Von Schweikert handbook for customer service.
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Oh my, what a fantastic system you have. I would love to hear it, especially with the Ultra 9's. Congrats on the final piece of the puzzle with the H. What DAC did you have?

 

[takacs75]

At some point soon I will compare Horizon to Heisenbergs vs Horizon to Stern to Heisenbergs - I'll post my findings.

I sold my Stern after I got the Horizon

 

[Holli82]

Oh my, what a fantastic system you have. I would love to hear it, especially with the Ultra 9's. Congrats on the final piece of the puzzle with the H. What DAC did you have?

Had a Golden Gate 2 and before that a Theta Gen VIII. Happy to have you over to listen.

 

[heihei]

I sold my Stern after I got the Horizon

I tried it briefly when I had the demo unit, and found I got more clarity by using Horizon as pre, but lost some dynamics / drive. I want to try this for a longer period though.

 

[Sampajanna]

For those using the Tungsol 6SN7 drivers and/or tube experts. Are the Hyvac branded ones the exact same tube?

 

[rau]

I tried direct , always preferred using the master . As you can see my horizon is always in the 30's I found this the best in my system

 

[dminches]

I tried direct , always preferred using the master . As you can see my horizon is always in the 30's I found this the best in my system

If you are using the preamp why don't you run the Horizon at 63? Too much gain?

 

[Gregadd]

Liken it to optical magnification. There is a point where the distance from the object is optimum for the clearest view. Miss it in either direction and the vision becomes distorted.

 

[rau]

If you are using the preamp why don't you run the Horizon at 63? Too much gain

If you are using the preamp why don't you run the Horizon at 63? Too much gain?

It's all about bal for me , Example if I have my master pre around 12:00 - 1:00 I then use the Volume on H to fine tune " adjusting the gain " there is a sweet spot

 

[Alrainbow]

Can you adjust the input gain of your preamp ?