LampizatOr Baltic 3

[christoph]

Nice! That's something I would really want to try myself eventually...

The wait is long and painful, but totally worth it. I hope you'll get your Baltic 3 soon!



Seems like you will be busy once you get your Baltic 3... Please report your impressions with them. I'm currently using KR Audio 5U4G and not really sure where to go next, or if I should settle with that for now and look at replacing the lovely looking blue bulbs first perhaps.

The KR 5u4g is excellent

 

[Kenc]

The stock rectifier that I received with my B3 is a SED "Winged C" 5U3C. It doesn't sound bad at all.
My Allnic H-3000 phono stage's power supply is very sensitive to rectifier tube changes...moreso than
the Lampi dac. The Russian rectifier sounds so good in the phono stage, it is staying there! So far, I have found a 1940's RCA
5U4G to work quite well in the B3 but I do not have any >$300 rectifiers to play with a this point.

If I might ask a stupid question...the other tubes used in this dac, the 6SN7 types and the ECC802's...what are they doing? Are they drivers, providing gain, buffers etc? I'm curious what they might do in the signal path.

 

[kodomo]

Still my favorite recti
Unfortunately quite expensive for a consumable item (but the vinyl guys are used to that with their cartridges)
Congrats on the Baltic 3 btw.
I'm quite confident that it will be an overachiever

I have a few, I got them direct when I was at Japan the last time!

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

The KR 5u4g is excellent

Yeah, it will have to do for a while... I did like your comparison of expensive rectifiers vs cartridges though, that makes even the Takatsuki seem more affordable all of a sudden...

 

[christoph]

I have a few, I got them direct when I was at Japan the last time!

Well done, Robin

 

[Caseyboy]

Have been looking fondly at this new Baltic 3 for a month or two now. Courage up to write this...

I have a Lampizator story. Was an early Lampizator dac owner about 10 years ago - in fact was recovering from serious surgery at the time, someone sent me a Gen 3 Level 3 demo, life was short and needed to enjoy it, so bought the dac. In 2015 I talked to Fred about upgrades and amazing he facilitated Lukasz personally doing a mod to my dac raising the dac significantly in performance - Fred said Level 4+ at that time.

Have had and used the dac ever since. It is old school, no usb, no dsd, spdif only and rcas. Still have had maybe 10 contenders in my house over the last 5 years - Audio Note to Exogal Comet, Schiit Yiggy to Metrum and nothing could take my Lukasz modded dac down. Latest contender is dac in Hegel 390 that does all kinds of fancy MQA, DSD, upsampling tricks - can't touch the Lampizator. The force is just crazy strong with this one.

Have read the Baltic lamp is based upon the Level 4 template plus Amber 3 plus more goodies. Without spending north of 10K - which won't be happening - could the Baltic be the one?

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

Have been looking fondly at this new Baltic 3 for a month or two now. Courage up to write this...

I have a Lampizator story. Was an early Lampizator dac owner about 10 years ago - in fact was recovering from serious surgery at the time, someone sent me a Gen 3 Level 3 demo, life was short and needed to enjoy it, so bought the dac. In 2015 I talked to Fred about upgrades and amazing he facilitated Lukasz personally doing a mod to my dac raising the dac significantly in performance - Fred said Level 4+ at that time.

Have had and used the dac ever since. It is old school, no usb, no dsd, spdif only and rcas. Still have had maybe 10 contenders in my house over the last 5 years - Audio Note to Exogal Comet, Schiit Yiggy to Metrum and nothing could take my Lukasz modded dac down. Latest contender is dac in Hegel 390 that does all kinds of fancy MQA, DSD, upsampling tricks - can't touch the Lampizator. The force is just crazy strong with this one.

Have read the Baltic lamp is based upon the Level 4 template plus Amber 3 plus more goodies. Without spending north of 10K - which won't be happening - could the Baltic be the one?

Great story! I can relate a bit, my first Lampi was a beautiful Level 4 DSD, built on a nice wooden deck with a lot of point to point soldering. I compared this DAC with much more expensive ones, not because I was looking for a replacement, but because I had the possibility. For example Playback Design was one of them, a DAC costing many times more than my precious L4 and while it probably was more "correct" and "neutral" with more details etc, it just didn't have that charm and lovely feeling of the L4 which was incredibly engaging and involving in it's sound character. It made listening to music fun!

I guess your first love, first born, first hamster, first Lampi and so on is always going to be special, nothing can really compete with it. With that said, I dare to say that Baltic 3 is on a completely different level than your very special L4. Will you like it better though? That's something else, maybe you are so used to the sound of your L4 and maybe it makes a perfect balance with the rest of your system that it will be tough for any new DAC to ever take it's place.

If possible I would say you should maybe keep your L4 for nostalgic reasons which way you ever decide to go, but trying the Baltic 3 to see how far Lampi's have come in 10 years with an open mind could be very interesting as well as highly rewarding. I'm still deep down in love with my new B3 and I would love to hear your impressions about it. Also, I'd say that if B3 won't cut it for you, then you'll know that the L4 is simply not replaceable.

 

[shakti]

My Brinkmann Nyquist II DAC is sold, as I missed Tube Rolling too much

Analyzing the current Lampizator portfolio (haven't done for quite a while), it seems, that Baltic 3 is the way to go.

Same digital engine (DSD512) as GG2, enough tubes to allow proper tube rolling, even XLR plus RCA outs,
without the need to exchange 4 expensive tubes while tube rolling.

I was a big fan of the Lampizator lite7 "DERSIEBENER" Edition (better caps) as a smart and affordable version of GG1 and it looks like, that Baltic 3 can be seen as a kind of Pacific lite with a similar voicing and close by performance level,
if heated with appropriate tubes.

From there the decision was taken to order the Baltic 3 in a full silver version to match the color of my Audionet Stern PreAmp.
Looking forward to receive the Baltic 3 soon

I already placed some different tubes on a table near by to start the Lampi unique tube rolling adventure !

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

My Brinkmann Nyquist II DAC is sold, as I missed Tube Rolling too much

Congrats on ordering the Baltic 3! I will very much be looking forward to your first impression compared to the Nyquist which is not a bad DAC at all. Baltic 3 must have been like half of the retail price of the Nyquist? I still don't think you will be disappointed.

I've just started rolling some tubes in the B3 myself, never really cared much about tube rolling before, but it's a lot of fun for sure and I'm hooked already! Lot's of fun options with the B3.

 

[RDSChicago]

Can anyone compare the B3 to the GA TRP? I’m looking to acquire my first Lampi and was wondering if the B3 gets one close to the GA TRP sound, without the massive amount of tube rolling options.

 

[Golum]

Well, three of my friends awaiting delivery of their B3s in the upcoming 2/3 weeks...will be lots of info from their side I would say .
Two of them newcomers to Lampi world, third one moving from Baltic 1 (but some special edition made for him)...

 

[Caseyboy]

wondering what people are feeding their Baltics with - have Lumin U1 mini here but do you need one of the high end expensive streamers to have it perform at high level? The B3 does seem to be nice combo of price and performance.

 

[VoicesInMyHead]

wondering what people are feeding their Baltics with - have Lumin U1 mini here but do you need one of the high end expensive streamers to have it perform at high level? The B3 does seem to be nice combo of price and performance.

I'm using the USB output from a Lumin U1 Mini with my B3 and I would say it's "high enough" level, it sounds absolutely fabulous. I have upgraded my power supply to a Paul Hynes SR4T though. Also make sure to use good cables (as always).

 

[christoph]

Can anyone compare the B3 to the GA TRP? I’m looking to acquire my first Lampi and was wondering if the B3 gets one close to the GA TRP sound, without the massive amount of tube rolling options.

That is the million Dollar question
Unfortunately I have not heard the B3 yet and noone I know has had the opportunity to compare the B3 to the GA TRP...

 

[Golum]

That is the million Dollar question
Unfortunately I have not heard the B3 yet and noone I know has had the opportunity to compare the B3 to the GA TRP...

Why million $ question?
Around 13k to get both and you answer the question of a million $

 

[Kenc]

wondering what people are feeding their Baltics with - have Lumin U1 mini here but do you need one of the high end expensive streamers to have it perform at high level? The B3 does seem to be nice combo of price and performance.

I had a U1 mini for quite a while and used it to feed my EMM Dac2x v2, Lampi GG1 and now the B3. Never did I feel it was a limiting factor. Adding an external LPS is a must (SBooster is favoured where I live). The next incremental but very real upgrades were with the addition of audio grade network switches and external PS's on these at the source/router end and at the listening room end.

While I have not heard any of the "extreme" streamers, I did come across a good deal on a used Lumin U1 recently. In my recent experience the uptick from U1 mini to U1 is small and not worth it at the retail price level. The U1 is a lot prettier though!

 

[christoph]

Lampi GG1 and now the B3

How would you compare the B3 and the GG1?
What spec/engine was your GG1?

 

[christoph]

Why million $ question?
Around 13k to get both and you answer the question of a million $

13K?
I already have the TRP, remember?

 

[shadowlight]

13K?
I already have the TRP, remember?

Then is just 5k to answer the million dollar question

 

[Kenc]

How would you compare the B3 and the GG1?
What spec/engine was your GG1?

Christoph, I tried to clumsily answer this on entry #6 of the previous page. I've had the B3 fo 4 weeks now and I still can't tell you that it sounds massively different than the GG1 DSD SE that I was mooching before. I can say that I am very happy with the performance after some pre-purchase trepidation that this would be inferior to the more than twice the parts and price GG1. I also like that it doesn't hang over the edge of my rack. I don't have a deep history of Lampi ownership as many others here do so I can't compare further from this or that. I understand that the B3 will be the subject of two N.A. reviews by non-Lampi folks. I'm guessing that they'll only have very nice things to say!