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Lyngdorf TDAI-3400

Well, after reading all the rave reviews of the Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 both here and other places, I decided to order a TDAI-3400 for myself.  I must admit I am still skeptical that such a diminutive piece of equipment can sound better than the Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP tube amp weighing more than 50 lbs, but I have been so intrigued by everything I have read I simply had to pull the trigger. 
I just unboxed it today, hooked everything up, and am listening to it for a while before setting up Room Perfect. 
I really want to hear the what the amp sounds like as-is for a bit to understand it better. 
First impressions:  Without Room Perfect it sounds like very nice solid state amps I've owned in the past, but to be honest, I don't find the sound to be particularly moving.  I moved to tubes after years of solid state, and I swore I would never go back.  That is where I'm coming from.  I should also add that I always try to keep an open mind.  While my initial take on it might sound like I don't like it, I hope folks just read this as me being as honest as possible about what I hear.  I know the tendency when buying new gear is to want so badly to love it in order to justify the expense that it's easy to fool oneself into believing it's an improvement over what you had before, even when it's not.  Of course I really want it to be as mind blowing as it has been built up in my mind to be, but if it's not I am OK with simply moving back to what I have liked so far.   
I have only been playing records through it so far.  Analog makes up 98% of my listening so that's where I am starting with it.  I have a nice CD transport that I will connect to it in the next day or so just to hear the DAC in the unit.  I will also experiment with playing files from USB sticks, computer audio from my MacBook Pro, and whatever else I decide.  I am not prepared to purchase a music server just yet, but it's something I have thought about for a while.  
My system:  speakers are Harbeth Monitor 40.1's.  Turntable is an SME 20/2 with SME IV.iv tonearm and Kiseki Purple Heart cartridge, fed to a Parasound JC-3+ phono preamp.  Power conditioner is Audioqest Niagara 7000.  CD transport is a Wadia 8.  
I will report back as I have more time to experiment and let the amp break in.  

128x128snackeyp
snackeyp's avatar
snackeyp OP
455 posts
 
An update to my original post after about two weeks of listening...
First of all, the amp's sound has really started to settle in and relax.  At first it had a bit of a congested and tight sound to it.  Not really bad, just not great.  I estimate I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hours on it so far, and I leave it turned on 24/7 as some folks have suggested.  
As a reminder, I primarily play vinyl through it, and while I have been exploring the digital features of the amp, I'm still listening to 90% or more in the analog realm.
THE BIGGEST difference I have experienced so far is when I switched from RCA cables to XLR between my phono preamp and the Lyngdorf.  I bought some Pangea XLR cables, of which I have heard great things, and connected them the other night.  What I heard after that was just mind boggling!  It's the first time for me to use balanced cables in a system, and all I can say is I'm a believer.  EVERYTHING sounds so much better.  This is the best I have ever heard music sound in any system I have owned.  Adding the high end analog inputs to this amp is essential, in case anyone considering this amp is on the fence. 
As for digital... I've been plugging my MacBook Pro into the USB input of the amp and playing a variety of FLAC and hi-rez files to test the sound capabilities of these features. 
To be honest, the sound is really good, but it doesn't sound nearly as good as the analog side to me in the current configuration.  It just sounds like really good digital sound, which is just OK IMO.  I am seriously considering adding a music server to the chain (still researching), as I know that most decent servers are said to sound much better than a MacBook Pro. 
Cheers,
Peter 
waltersalas's avatar
waltersalas
952 posts
 

Peter, thanks for your post. This is very encouraging for me especially, since I play a lot of vinyl. I would love to try XLR, but unfortunately, my Allnic H1201 is RCA only.  I hope you find a music server that suits you. I've been pretty pleased with my Aurender X100L. It sounds good to me, I can stream TIDAL through it, and it has 6 TB of storage.
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
@JCarcopo, I took a look at the manual for the 3400, and here are some things that appear to me may be worth trying:

1) There is a limiter function that can be engaged via the menus. Try that, if you already haven’t.

2) The section in the manual on RoomPerfect states as follows:

You can always add room measurements to increase the RoomKnowledge, and if you have a bit too much bass, we recommend taking a couple of measurements within 50cm/1.5ft of the walls and ceiling when above 90% RoomKnowledge.
Perhaps doing that would resolve the problem, while not reducing overall bass response to an unacceptable degree.

3) After looking at the manual the answer to the question I raised previously still isn’t clear to me, namely whether or not the unit can provide visibility into the specific characteristics of the room corrections. Perhaps that can be obtained in the screens that are depicted in the "Voicing Setup" section of the manual, or perhaps not. But if it can be, seeing exactly what the corrections are may provide a clue as to how to address the problem. And perhaps the solution would be creation of a suitable "voicing filter," to reduce the magnitude of one or more specific boosts the RoomPerfect function has introduced.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al
jcarcopo's avatar
jcarcopo
504 posts
 
@almarg Thanks for the help.  I already have the limiter engaged. Lyngdorf finally got back to me, apparently my issue ticket was left on the wrong desk.  They want me to upload a copy of the backup settings to drop box and let them analyze it to see what's going on. There's is a dip around 100hz based on a prior manual room correction measurement using REW. It was being corrected through Roon though not as aggressively, but the Lyngdorf can add up to 10db of gain to compensate.  This should still allow me to turn the unit volume up to 0db, but I'm having issues at -7db so something isn't right.  I'll get the file to Lyngdorf so maybe they can shed some light on what's going on. 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Jonathan, 
That's good news and I'm confident that Lyngdorf will get this problem figured out in short order.
Charles 
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