MHDT Orchid or Lampizator Amber 3?

Here's some information regarding the above stated questions:

1) facten- we have done this dance before- if what I wrote in my review or on this thread does not satisfy what you are looking for, that's your problem and not mine.  I believe that what I wrote is pretty clear about my position regarding these different DACs.

2) Grannyring- I believe my friend's mods to the Orchid were very close to yours, and yes it made an improvement, but not to the degree that it was on the same level as the Audio Mirror SE piece.  The Amber 3 had many hundreds of hours on it, so burn-in was not an issue. Also, Bill your statement regarding different gear, subjective taste, different room acoustics, and system synergy is spot on.  Therefore, everyone must try these different pieces to see if they can get what they want in their own systems.  I don't want to start a fight, but sometimes I wonder if it takes hundreds or thousands of hours of break-in/burn-in to get the piece's performance to change for the better, or do we hear it or experience it differently because of our mood/intent over a very lengthy period of time.  Frankly, I have never had a piece of gear that started out sounding lousy, blossom into something superlative much later.  I have had many pieces for review that sounded excellent right out of the crate, and then got better with around 50 to 150 hours of burn-in.

3) ghasley- First thanks for the kind words regarding what I share here and in my reviews. Yes, you got the order correct, regarding the DACs in my home system.

Clear but not necessarily consistent. 

@teajay


Thanks for the reply. I’m not exactly sure why people get angry or snarky, you merely report your observations and we all can either choose to benefit from your findings or not. Its just audio folks. Our own observations may differ or align but isn’t that what’s fun?

Regarding break in, I was always a skeptic but have become a little more open minded about it. Cables, especially if they happen to have inline networks, do take a bit of time. Tube gear, does take a bit of time. Tube gear with tube rectification or tubes in the power supplies seem to take longer still. I dont quite understand why and I used to be mildly dismissive until I experienced my first truly painful break in experience with an Audio Research Ref 5se preamp. I made the assumption it had to do with 4 tubes in the pre and 2 tubes in the power supply.

The most painful break in period though was with the Amber 3. I’m going to guess it was to do with the tube rectification, I don’t know. If someone asked me I would honestly have to say to expect the Amber 3 to come into its own after 400 hours and it still evolves after 500. I know this because I first experienced the Amber 3 in my system by placing a well broken in demo unit into rotation. I then received my brand new unit and it flat out sounded broken. No joke, broken. Today it doesn’t but thats after a long (500+ hours) breakin, a NOS 12au7 tube and setting it to low gain.

It isn’t my lead dac in my main system but it does occupy a place in my office system, anchored by a Leben cs600x. The Amber 3 is a fine dac, the Tubadour is a fine dac, the Orchid is a fine dac as was the Border Patrol. For this system, for what I was after, I sold all of these except the Amber 3. Once again, I wasnt test driving these, I owned them. The cost of entry didnt enter into my decision because (gratefully) this isn’t my rent money. Its entertainment.

BUT...BUT...if anyone reading this believes that any one of the aforementioned dacs is right and the others sound broken, dont believe them. They are each terrific and each suitable for the long term enjoyment of the purchaser. Dont for a minute though believe these are end game giant killer pieces. They are not going to put Aqua or Totaldac or Lampizator or MSB out of business. They are, however, so good that the law of diminishing returns requires a sanity check for each of us. It used to be that dacs up to a certain pricepoint were unlistenable, now, we are lucky that that is no longer the case.

What a well reasoned sensible post ghasley....a breath of fresh air 

Whatever happened to the Lab 12 DAC1?