MHDT Orchid or Lampizator Amber 3?

Hello all. Today I compared the $10,000 Atlantic Golden TRP to my $1400 or so upgraded Orchid. Yes, not a fair comparison due to the vast price difference.

Colin of Gestalt Audio in Nashville had it set up in his killer system. Did I find my Orchid as good as the Golden TRP? Honestly, I did not. The Orchid was not embarrassed however and actually had better weight and fullness or more “meat on the bones”. However, the Atlantic Golden was more resolute and effortless sounding. It also spread a wider stage. I liked it very much. Great dac. I cannot spend $10,000 and am assuming the Amber 3 will share the same strengths compared to the Orchid. This is speculation, but I liked the Lampizator sound coming through the Atlantic Golden. Sometimes that extra 10% in performance is worth the cost as it just brings you closer to the music/performance.

I had fun and really enjoyed the Zellaton, Gershman Acoustic speakers and Lamm gear Colin has on hand.

I am going to proceed on getting the Amber 3 and placing it in my system for further  Colin is great to work with and suspect I will be back to his listening room soon 🙂.

@grannyring which tubes was Colin running in the Golden Atlantic TRP?

I will let Colin respond as I don’t remember. The Golden Atlantic spread a vivid and lively soundstage that placed the instruments and vocalists in the space with you. It was more vivid sounding than the Orchid. I found myself wanting to turn up the Orchid up to match the vividness and scale of the Golden Atlantic. However, the  increased volume was not enough to match the scale and vividness of the Golden Atlantic.

@grannyring it was a pleasure.

@ghasley NOS USAF 596 rectifier and Gold Lion new production KT66 output tubes. I have a fair number of other tubes available (KR 5U4G RK, NOS EL34, NOS Brimar 6L6G, new production KT77, NOS Russian 5C3S, etc) for audition but we purposefully avoided rolling the tubes for this session in an attempt to fairly represent the Amber 3.

@gestalt What's the turnaround time on getting an Amber?