Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Hi Wisnon,

Thanks, your opinion is appreciated. I noticed you post on many forums about your experiences with the Lampi DACs. Im glad you enjoy it. This is what high end is all about everyone has different expectation and listening taste.

The Golden Gate I have in my possession for 6 weeks was with a dual engine. Iv complained about the noise but if you research over the net I'm not the only one mentioning this a few members from different forums concluded the same. My unit had a slight humming to the chassis.

the one thing which is apparent on most Lampi dac is the build quality. It feels very much like a DIY Job when compare the build quality to many other well built DACs in the same league.

One may conclude after anylizing this thread that it is complete system synergy that is what is really important here.

In reality every dac that has been discussed has its merits and may just sing in one particular system. The Lampi is certainly one of the top dacs on the market, along with the Davinci, the DCS products, the EMM Labs Dacs, the Playback etc.

The issue then really boils down to a couple of things which may sway the listener to single in one factors such as:

1: Up-gradablility
2: Ease of serviceability
3: Construction quality/styling
4: Features
5: Overall value

This is one of the reasons we have traditionally offered dac from a number of great companies  as usually one size does not fit all.

The salient point is that you must listen to these products in your own system and you must also experiement with tuning your system to bring out the qualties that you are looking for in both the system and the dac.

We got one level of sound quality with the Aurender units and another level with the Baetis computer. 

So go out and just listen and then experiment with your source, one of t he nicest things about the Baetis or any true computer based solution is the freedom to listen to your dac with DSD files or PCM at whatever sampling rates you like. 

I will say that all of these dacs will sound amazing to you depending on finding the complimentary sampling rate and file type.

With Jriver and now Roon you have that freedom

Viva la difference and happy listening to all!

Troy
Audio Doctor


 

Audio Doctor,

Your absolutely right system synergy was something i used to take lightly not anymore experience shows what can work for others does not necessarily mean it will work for us. This is why an in home demo is highly suggested.

Out of Roon vs Jriver this debate has been going on for some time, which do you think sounds better to your ears?

All systems are synergistic.  That's the problem in audio IMHO....too many buy based threads like this or other ones I read and participate in.  They need to put a system together as just that...a system.  Well engineered and built products should all sound very good together, but this is also electronics and they don't always play well in the sandbox together.  I keep thinking I have a good system and then I upgrade and wow.....  The Quatro's were installed and set up yesterday and holy cow.  Now I can really hear what the rest of the system is capable of. I got the lower priced Treo's knowing I would upgrade within a few years, so I made sure I got components that sounded great with either speaker.  Now I don't have to worry about amps, cables or DAC.....  The synergy is there.  Have a friend who reads this thread too I believe and he did the same thing with B&W's.  I have not like many of the DAC's spoken about, but I know I'm the outcast.  I like a different sound possibly.  I listen to a ton of live music as I like to get out as much as possible.  I know many on this board also do as we discuss it all the time.  

Dragon has added even more life into a great thread.  Thanks man.

Ctsooner, I hate to disagree with you but I must. All systems are NOT synergistic.

We have seen way better results in some instances of using a tube preamp with a solid state amp sometimes from different companies.

We have also seen that sometimes too much of one companies products can tilt the sound in an unfavorable way while in some instances  company A's amp plus company A's preamp does indeed sound better.

As per synergy you would think in our main demo rig that the T+A preamp, plus the T+A amp, plus the T+A reference SACD/CD/Dac would sound the best, after all they are all from the same company and were designed together, yet the Davinci still sounds signigantly better. 

So if your point was valid then the all T+A system should sound way better yet it doesn't.

In your case Vandy Treo and Vandy Quattro are voiced similarily same with your friends B&W, if you for example moved from Vandy to Magico, or Vandy to Rockport, or Vandy to Rahido you would probably not be digging the combo with Ayre. 

The Vandy/Ayre combo works at the Vandy's tend to be a bit on the overally warm side with the Ayre's being a bit lean. So the combo works beautifully which is the defination of synergy.

We tried many brands of expensive reference gear because they did not work well with some of our speakers. For example we tried the Thrax gear which was fantastic stuff, and CJ, and Devialet and none sounded as good as the T+A gear on both our Polymer speakers as well as the Personas.

When we had the Scaenas the CJ combo was magical and sounded better then our reference solid state Chord stuff at that time. 

So synergy is when you find a set of speakers, electronics, digital, cables  power conditioning etc that work together to create a sound that you find that works to your particular taste and sonic expectations.

The main reason for why so many people flip their gear is they do not know how to create synergy, when sometimes just changing cables or adding a few things can make a system come alive. 

Troy and Dave
Audio Doctor