Looking for really fine cables at really low price

Rob,
I'd have to agree with Bill's comparison of the two DACs. A friend of mine had the Lampizator Big 5 with Duelund capacitors and it is very good sounding ( forward presentation as Bill described). When we placed the yamamoto DAC (Duelund CASTcapacitors) in his system both of us preferred the Yamamoto). Same result in my system as well. The Yamamoto is more organic, fluid and involving musically speaking. It more effectively pulls you deeper into the music and is very dynamic and vibrant.

Rob the Lampizator is very good sounding, your opinion could be different from ours, variables and that subjectivity factor again. Yamamoto really does fit the "Timbral listening" gestalt very convincingly. Shigeki Yamamoto is cut from similar Japanese designer cloth as Yazaki IMO. I hope you can actually hear both of these DACs for your own ears to decide.
Charles,

Rob,
Bill's Lampi (Big push pull tubes) vs Yami (DHT SET) sums it up effectively.

Hi Charles,
It is almost certain that I am going to the Rocky Mountain Fest, Oct 2-3. Yazaki-san will be there demo with DeVore 0/96 his SPEC Real Sound integrated as well as his turntable design. I believe/hope I will compare/contrast Lampizator/Yamamoto at that event. I trust you will be right with regard to my timbral listening bias, the Yamamoto will likely win out. Best, Rob

Al, You, my friend, are a genius! The lack of sound in one channel was due to the fact that I temporarily hooked up one leg of the left channel without stripping the insulation. There was a good reason why I did this, which completely escapes me now. I forgot to go back and strip that leg before powering up the amp. There was no short, which is my worst nightmare in dealing with unterminated stranded wire. I quickly realized I had no sound from that channel and quickly (like 10 seconds) turned off the amp to avoid operating the dynamo without a load on one side. At that point, it was the end of the day, and I was tired, sweaty, and hot. I had no idea where my multimeter was, so I figured I needed to shut things down and try again with a fresh start. Good decision.

So your second scenario appears to be the correct one. It is nice to know there was a reasonable physical explanation for what I heard, other than that Rob and Bill don't know what music sounds like. It is kind of funny, because the sound was so bad it was exactly what I would expect old low tech speaker wire to sound like. Bad enough that 5 seconds of music was enough to tell me something was very wrong.

Rob,
Yamamoto has such a small U.S. presence I'm surprised you'll be able to hear it at the show. What will it be paired with? Again I believe that you will like both DACs if they're in a good romm/system. RMAF is a very good show.
Charles,