Many Lampi owners won't roll tubes either. Stock tubes are used by manufacturers for stability and availability, that's about it. Whether its McIntosh or VTL - all manufacturers assume tube rolling will occur and as proof it usually doesn't violate warranty. In fact, most love tube preamps because of how easy it is to tube roll.
Valin's new MSB Reference dac & transport review, AS Product Year Award
- Thread starter Mike Lavigne
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Many Lampi owners won't roll tubes either. Stock tubes are used by manufacturers for stability and availability, that's about it. Whether its McIntosh or VTL - all manufacturers assume tube rolling will occur and as proof it usually doesn't violate warranty. In fact, most love tube preamps because of how easy it is to tube roll.
Yes, Lampizator ownership is also a life style. I see your point comparing it to cartridges. But cartridge manufacturers can risk telling people they are adding different types of coloration to please them, DAC manufacturers usually do not want to do it ...
Yes, Lampizator ownership is also a life style. I see your point comparing it to cartridges. But cartridge manufacturers can risk telling people they are adding different types of coloration to please them, DAC manufacturers usually do not want to do it ...
Your color point not really making sense nor lifestyle. you really can't mismatch the gain of cart and the phono. If tang puts the same cart in input 1 of his EMT as opposed to input 2, he loses the drive. As does he putting some other phonos he tried in the signal path. That's the analogy
So, buying a Lampizator is like buying a turntable. You need tubes for the DAC to function just like you need a tonearm or cartridge or phono stage to get sound out of the turntable. Is that what you are saying? I guess other DACs then are like an integrated plug and play record player, while the Lampi is a special breed apart.
To Ron's point, you don't think the Lampi should be directly compared to other DACs without at least three sets of tubes on hand to see what configuration sounds best. And yet, and yet, you make all sorts of direct comparisons between turntables, tonearms, cartridges and phono stages whenever someone invites you into his home. Are your turntable direct comparisons less valid if they don't have three cartridge/tonearm/phonos on hand to optimize each turntable set up? Is that the analogy you are making?
I just don't get the point you are making about the Lampi and MSB comparison up thread not being valid because there were not three sets of tubes used with the Lampi. I think the astute observation about the two top shelves being radically different under the two DACs is more important for a fair comparison, although, some people think components should only be compared after each has been optimized on its own, so this cartridge on this arm, versus another on another arm; as a "system" so to speak.
Following your logic, if one prefers the MSB to the Lampi, it is just because the right set of tubes was not tried with the latter. Well, one could say that about any component not having the right footer, support shelf, power cord, or room acoustics, or whatever. Where does it end?
Lampi forum owners don't make up the universe, but I'm still missing your point Kedar. To say Lampi requires rolling for optimization and no other tube unit does just doesn't make sense.
i've owned a preamp that required tube rolling- the Mac C2500. Very commonly known the stock tubes are total trash. have a look at small tube prices over the past 10 years for an alternative view- and don't ask what @Steve Williams paid for his 12ax7s
anyways, we can agree to disagree.
You can order your Lampi DAC with a suggested set of tubes that work very good in a variety of Systems as an excellent "no hassle-turn-key-DAC"
But you can also order your Lampi DAC with your tubes of choice, if you know beforehand what you want and so safe this way on tubes you know you don't need or want. Or you order it without any tubes at all if you have a stash of tubes already.
As a Lampi owner you don't HAVE to go on a quest for the best matching tubes in your System, but you CAN and that is one of the many beauties with Lampi DACs
Thanks for the information. Never heard of any Lampi yet but it surely plays very well since there are a lot of followers of the brand. I hope I can hear one soon.
Actually, yes, TT compares are less valid with only one cart compare, that's why I do multiple. And I try to meet experts who have set it up and optimized
Technically a very poor analogy. You are comparing different inputs , not outputs and using a media where signal to noise ratio is critical due to very low level of signals.
Using misleading analogies we can prove anything. I was addressing objective technical points and you seem to be trying to escape from them ...
I have tried different brand 12AU7 in the VTL 7.5 mk3. It slightly changes sound quality, but with minimal differences in measurements. By mistake I put a 12AX7 in one channel - fortunately they are pin compatible, it was a common exchange in the mk1 version. It completely changed sound and measurements - more gain and much higher distortion.
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No you are comparing different brands of the same tube. That is also what Keith is referring to when he says tube rolling preamp.... Mullard telefunken, 12ax or Au. Now imagine your VTL allowed you to change from.12ax7 to PX4, PX25, 101d, 300b (and of course different brands for each tube)... But different tubes, it does not let you do right now. And other dacs don't let you do anything
Thank you for editing out the personal insults added at the end of this post. I am indeed trying to read carefully and understand the analogy you are trying to make, which is why I keep asking you questions for clarification. Thank you.
Well no, you are making definitive statements about what is happening in analog compares in skepticism mode
You wrote "to follow your logic" and then went ahead and wrote what you interpreted what I said, not what I actually said
No problem Bonzo. I grew up playing lawn tennis and then tried my hand at court tennis (or real tennis) at clubs in NYC and Boston. It was like going from checkers to chess. As an Englishman, I'm sure you can appreciate the complexities of court tennis.
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