Pacific dac: Lampizator's new top of the line dac

[wisnon]

Some photos from the fun Suncoast Audio event yesterday...

 

[wisnon]

 

[wisnon]

 

[Zero000]

Mine doesnt do that Justin.

Have you damped the chassis? I expect not but the cover does ring and I would damp it if I owned one.

You will need tubes that are microphonic to some extent for it to show Norman. In the first GG the Psvane 101D was dead quiet. Then I think I tried the Cunningham CX-345 in it and it went nuts. Tried it in mine and it was fine.

Actually PX4 is mildly microphonic in mine if you tap the tube directly.

It is very strange and whilst Ked thinks it is my preamp I have had other valve DACs in it with no issue.

 

[bonzo75]

Yes because mine doesn't make that noise in Bill's, Richards (not on this forum), Paul's, Lukasz's, Greg's, Robs, and many others. It does make in yours. A lot.

 

[Legolas]

Mine doesnt do that Justin.

Ehh? This is odd. if the top plate is not damped on the GG it WILL ring. Is there a separator shield half way with contact pads inside? If not that large sheet area will ring IMO. I tend to damp my DACs down with a passive pre-amp sat on top and a paper weight on top of that. So right in the middle of the top plate. I don't have tubes in the way though. There is the stuff they use inside car doors to stop them ringing and make them sound solid on closing. May work?

 

[Zero000]

Yes because mine doesn't make that noise in Bill's, Richards (not on this forum), Paul's, Lukasz's, Greg's, Robs, and many others. It does make in yours. A lot.

Even if not the lid is a resonant as hell. This WILL result in music exciting the tubes and if they are in any way microphonic it acts like the stylus on a TT picking up vibrations and you will effectively be listening to it.

 

[Zero000]

Lampi versus Schiit Modi http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=54363

 

[bonzo75]

Lampi versus Schiit Modi http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=54363

Should be clarified as Justin's Lampi, first big 7 ever built, with zero upgrades. You should take your Lampi to Bill's, who is not far from you and do a Lampi vs Lampi thread as a precursor.

 

[Zero000]

Should be clarified as Justin's Lampi, first big 7 ever built, with zero upgrades. You should take your Lampi to Bill's, who is not far from you and do a Lampi vs Lampi thread as a precursor.

He'd learn a lot more than I would coming here with his GG. Could always plumb in the Air Tight passive to rule out my preamp.

But seriously, he'd hear my Duettas in the best state they have ever been in.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Justin, I've implored him to get to you.
But it's not going to happen.
He has a life LOL! Not like me and Ked with the spare time that allows us to burn time travelling to listen.

 

[sbo6]

A cheap tip for equipment damping - try a rubber bench block used for jewelry. About $30 for 2: 4" x 6" blocks on eBay.. Lots of other sizes available.

 

[wisnon]

Have you damped the chassis? I expect not but the cover does ring and I would damp it if I owned one.

You will need tubes that are microphonic to some extent for it to show Norman. In the first GG the Psvane 101D was dead quiet. Then I think I tried the Cunningham CX-345 in it and it went nuts. Tried it in mine and it was fine.

Actually PX4 is mildly microphonic in mine if you tap the tube directly.

It is very strange and whilst Ked thinks it is my preamp I have had other valve DACs in it with no issue.

I have 10 pairs of DHTs. No issue there, unles you ping the tubes themselves. No chassis dampiing. Stock GG.

 

[bonzo75]

He'd learn a lot more than I would coming here with his GG. Could always plumb in the Air Tight passive to rule out my preamp.

But seriously, he'd hear my Duettas in the best state they have ever been in.

Actually, I told him to go listen to your duetta but with his Lampi and integrated analog domain

 

[ferrox]

Last week, I went to a friend's house to audition his 2nd room. He just got his Massif Audio Design maple wood platforms, some maple wood blocks and cocobolo footers. We played around and make some direct assessment on the the spot.
It's so easy to tell the difference. Putting a 15 x 22cm of solid maple wood block on top of his AMR CDP makes the sound of his overall system become more balance, texture flesh out, and better bass definition. We played around for about two hours and it's pretty fun to do some experiment indeed.

Arshad, Ked rightly called out my previous room in London for being harsh, reflective, poor boomy bass, zero imaging etc despite my pleas that the core tone was good.
His diagnosis of my room issues was spot on, and he lent me some Mooks Giants to try out.
And they contributed a lot to making the sound more palatable, textured and inviting, enhancing warmth and extension in the upper bass especially.
I bought the set from him, and whether I used them under my big 85kg balanced transformer or my smaller cdp, they were 100% beneficial. Ked still didn't rate my sound, and felt the Giants weren't ideally suited under a mid size component like my Eera, but the positive effects couldn't be denied.
A slam dunk impvt, and I invited the skepticism of Ron Resnick and other nay sayers when I announced my intention to Mook out my whole system, Giants under bpt and monos, Ultras under cdp and preamp.
Had I stayed in that room, I'd have put aside £00000s to Mook up fully.
---
Fast fwd 18 months, I'm now in my new room, and it's instantly 1000% better than my old space, and that's before I've installed the dedicated power grid or any other tweaks, just power out of domestic sockets into £0.99 off the shelf power cords.
I install the Giants under my cdp as a first tweak, and things are plain wrong. Bass is increased as in London, but now in all the wrong ways, muddy, unfocused, bloated. Replace them with a set of Symposium hard footers and things are motoring again.
Power grid goes in with balanced transformer, Symposium footers good, back to Giants, and if anything it's worse.
Ked informs me it must be "wrong" to use the Giants this way, only Ultras to be used under mid size components. Well, why were the Giants great under the "wrong" component in London? And putting the Giants under the transformer ("correct" here with the unit being oversized) was similarly anti climactic.
Cue disagreement w Ked.
So out they go, and in go the Stacores, first under transformer, then cdp, both with 100% stellar results.
---
Fast fwd to recently where I've been installing SR Black fuses in my gear, all great except for some ambiguity with new fuses in preamp. There are ELEVEN here, so some likelihood of needing longer burn in, but for the first time since I started tweaking out with Stacores, Sablon Elite pwr cords and these fuses, some move backwards in overall SQ with bass a little one note and slow.
I try my luck putting the Giants under my preamp psu, and things streamline in the bass quite a bit, and I resolve to at least use this one set of Giants in the system.
Note, again if one is to take Ked's view, the Giants are "wrong" in this application, with the psu even smaller than the cdp.
---
Things still not quite right however, so I try a couple of things, first correct the reverse phase on my spkr cbls (NAT amps designed to wire to spkrs out of phase, reversing + and - on the spkr cbl terminations). This is against the design ethos of the amps, but for the first time ever it sounds right with "correct" polarity direction.
And then I again remove the Mooks.
And now EVERYTHING snaps into place. Bass bloat, unwanted smearing etc is gone.
---
And so my on/off/on love affair with Mooks is definitely off again.
And all of this has cemented in my mind that Mooks enhance resonance frequency bands in the upper bass/lower mids. Where an acoustic is harsh and hollowed out as in my old apartment, they are a boon, exaggerating a warmth that is desirable but probably not accurate or on the recording.
In a more forgiving room where bass is not challenging, and there is no harshness to start, the Mooks IMHO act as a coloring device, here totally undesirable.
The Stacores on the other hand, don't draw attention to any one frequency, being even handed across the spectrum, and just open up so much of the musical canvas w'out drawing attention to themselves.
I realise my view might be a minority one, but I feel my experience of living with the Mooks over time in two vastly different environments gives me more than enough to work out what they do, and whether they're for me.
And they're undoubtedly not.

 

[Alrainbow]

Tube ringing is a known issue for lampi owners
I have had it happen. But also with my woo amps
I feelmit has to do with imp matching to the next device
In my case I use my Msb as a preamp to resolve this and it’s gone.
Some tubes are more microphonic then others again a guess it’s imp
Causing this. On my woo amps if I use a high imp output setting ona high imp headphone it’s there. Select a low imp output and it’s gone. I don’t use any lampi I own as a direct feed to my amps. I find it’s a better consistency if I don’t.
The sound remains the same as well only varying with tube rolls.
If I don’t many varibles now come in to play.
I know Luke has gone to some homes to solve there issues for this as well
Tube dapeners do work as well.
I think it’s a small price we pay for such a great sound and deal with it is fine.
If we consider any other product is also effected by cables and what we call synergy that I think has all to do with imp
Matching as well besides one product being better or warmer as well.


Output

 

[bonzo75]

I feel it has to do with imp matching to the next device
In my case I use my Msb as a preamp to resolve this and it’s gone.

This is what I am saying.

 

[Zero000]

Hm. Just been surfing the www.lampizatorpoland.com site and I see the Munich 2017 video I shot and posted a couple of pages back is also being used by Lampizator.

I demand a Pacific in royalty fees!

 

[Argonaut]

Hmmmm, Interesting, altho I do hope Lukas perhaps considers a couple of alternative case materials as for my part I find the current material a tad 'Blingy' for my taste.

 

[wisnon]

He did say he is considering eventually doing black and brushed alu down the road..