Pacific dac: Lampizator's new top of the line dac
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Can you please describe some of the sonics differences between the Pac and the Dave. Thanks.
I will try to do so. I found Dave (with M Scaler) to have a very high resolution and a sense of startling presence with well recorded albums, but I found a small amount of harshness when the albums were not stellar. A good example of the former was some new music I discovered recently and love: Rokia Traore - Beautiful Africa. Really wonderful voice that seems to hang in space at the right spot and the other instruments are similarly perfectly placed and sound great. But I often have difficulty listening to another favorite album of mine that is not very well recorded: Edith Piaff's Eternelle. I'm sure my horns are also magnifying this, but I hear some glare in many of the songs, especially as Edith's Piaff's voice soars and her orchestra joins in.
With the Pacific, there is resolution and an even more sense of 3D (both width and depth), but on top of that there's this "lushness" (probably a terrible word choice), that seems to be added to the music. Even the Edith Piaff's album now is missing the glare and I don't have to brace myself when listening to some of the passages. I was also seeing similar differences when listening to orchestral music like Dvorak's 9th or Scheherazade (both Reiner/CSO). They were pretty amazing with the Dave, but Pacific seems to take it another level with more "body" to the music without compromising on the resolution and dynamics.
Agreed. Though, FWIW, the noise has definitely gone down a lot today - though not completely gone. At this point, I'm having to really push myself hard to hear the noise and my ambient noise almost always seems to mask it. Of course having 107db Horns is probably not hiding any potential noise from my environment.
As an aside, by forcing me to listen very carefully (and following Alrainbow's instructions), I also discovered that my ceiling lights make this annoying high pitched whine - needless to say I turn them off when listening
(though turning them off did not fully solve the problem) The problem is that I have like 30 lights in my ceiling, so I need to figure out how to swap them out for a better brand that does not hum.I had been running the Simaudio 780D v2. I had been pleased for years. It's a DAC that punches above its weight and is a stellar performer at half the cost. Obviously had great synergy with the rest of my Simaudio gear and has a built-in streamer that makes a great package. That said, I was ready to try something new and am thrilled with the Pacific.
I tried to attach a pic below. I was also sent a set of silver matte screws for the top plate in case that would be a preferred aesthetic vs black...
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Anil,
I've been there you can do what everyone asked you to do and still not come to a successful resolution as to cause. To begin it is so easy to get a frequency measurement of the hum/ buzz frequency with a smart phone and any number of free or inexpensive software programs. Look at frequency analyzer in the App store (for mac products). Buzz is typically 120Hz which is a harmonic of 60 Hz (generally heard as hum). If this is the case, it is most likely a ground loop somewhere and it can be a royal pain to diagnose where the problem lies. A much easier solution is to get a relatively low cost Furman or Torus power conditioner that has an isolation transformer to provide balanced power Note- you don't want an ordinary power conditioner. You must get one that incorporates an isolation transformer. Try plugging in the Lampi ONLY to this. I wouldn't be surprised if this solved your problem. I had to do this on my Lampi Golden Gate 2 and it works like a charm. There are lots of posts on this forum about such devices.
www.whatsbestforum.com
I do not recommend them if you don't need them but if you do they can work miracles for such gremlins. You can often buy these used on ebay with return privileges and a full refund (not an exchange) in 30 days, so there is little to lose.
Good luck
Marty
I've been there you can do what everyone asked you to do and still not come to a successful resolution as to cause. To begin it is so easy to get a frequency measurement of the hum/ buzz frequency with a smart phone and any number of free or inexpensive software programs. Look at frequency analyzer in the App store (for mac products). Buzz is typically 120Hz which is a harmonic of 60 Hz (generally heard as hum). If this is the case, it is most likely a ground loop somewhere and it can be a royal pain to diagnose where the problem lies. A much easier solution is to get a relatively low cost Furman or Torus power conditioner that has an isolation transformer to provide balanced power Note- you don't want an ordinary power conditioner. You must get one that incorporates an isolation transformer. Try plugging in the Lampi ONLY to this. I wouldn't be surprised if this solved your problem. I had to do this on my Lampi Golden Gate 2 and it works like a charm. There are lots of posts on this forum about such devices.
Anyone connecting Lampizator PACIFIC Dac using RCA connections
Lampizator groupies arrive to help always. But some do carry Weapons just in case it’s a false narrative at play.
www.whatsbestforum.com
I do not recommend them if you don't need them but if you do they can work miracles for such gremlins. You can often buy these used on ebay with return privileges and a full refund (not an exchange) in 30 days, so there is little to lose.
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Good luck
Marty
I just ordered a Pacific and it will require RCA cables. Is Lampizator aware of this humming issue in the past and have they taken any steps to ensure it is not prevalent in future DAC's? I am a little nervous after reading the thread above.
Congrats on order! Based on research and user input on this thread and forum, I requested the Pacific without ethernet port. Not really sure to what degree that would be a source of hum for some, but apparently it may be a culprit and I can definitely report that my Pacific is quiet as a mouse w really superb black background. I do not use a special isolation transformer/conditioner.
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Will same case with mine - dead silent and even having ethernet input. I don't think you need to be nervous at all...
And congrats on your order!
After you have the preamp already anyways, why not just try it?
Isn't that part of the fun in this hobby? Trying things and learn a lot along the way
I am going to step in here and tell the truth.
I had enormous trouble. I even sent my DAC back to Lampizator and they sent it back with the same issue.
I dumped Lampizator and got a decent engineer to look at the DAC. He got to the problem very quickly. The DAC has now had a number of serious mods and upgrades by the same engineer and I am confident it is in an outstanding state.
Other people have had problems too. That said, I am reasonably confident most haven't. So as usual with most companies people's experiences differ. Just like reading reviews on TrustPilot.
I wouldn't worry too much.
microphonics is a complex item . in part its a gain issue , next is imp miss match . these two alone cause of the issues .
have you tried a ground wire from dac to preamp ? also use the same outlet for dac and preampSo using userstream's subjective criteria (which I kind of like, as it helps provide some baseline context): I can only barely hear it from my listening position (~12' away) when the ambient noise is very low and I'm doing critical listening. Even then it's noticeable only when it stops. Interestingly, the noise level also seems to be lower today once I unwound all my different configurations from the weekend. The net difference is that I've put the DAC on a rolling dolly with damping pads used for machines (as I wasn't too crazy about lifting and carrying it all over the place) and a little more distance from the amps and the wifi router. I'm planning on getting a nice stand any way (probably another Symposium ultra ampstand to match my monoblocks). My power cables are pretty generic at this point, so I will be upgrading those as well.
I think at this point, I will stop over-analyzing this and just enjoy the DAC
Anil
PS: Tuckia, thanks for the pointer to the spectrum app, pretty cool. I downloaded it and will try out when I get sufficient quietude in my listening area
No, I mean the fellow asked a Pac related question. Kinda hard to answer if you don't have one.
Here's the latest set up, still work in progress
My DAC was on a dolly as I was trying some configurations. I may end up moving the amps and DAC behind the wall (there's a closet on the other side), assuming thermal issues are not a concern. Trying to keep the front of the room really spare and empty if possible (except for the horns and subs of course!).
Anil
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