2. digital
  3. 152037-5396

Lampizator Amber 3

I expect to receive my new Amber 3 next week. It is unbalanced and without volume control.  It will have USB, SPIDF and Toslink digital inputs. Lampizator does not seem to offer upgraded tubes as an option so I am wondering what tubes, new or NOS, selected over the stock tubes might improve sound quality. Is it better to focus on the ECC99 or the ECC82? I find ECC82 equivalent code to be 12AU7 and ECC99 to be 6N6P and E182CC.

I will use Wywires Platinum USB cable and Wywires Digital Juice II Silver series power cord.          

I would greatly appreciate any other guidance people may have. 

Thanks


oglefront
oglefront OP
26 posts
 
Thank You All,
I tend to get a little over eager when anticipating a new component. After each read I was reminded of James Tanner's (Bryston) quote by his name on Audiocircle "Demo is Everything!".

For convenience I will provide Fred Ainsley's (Lampizator NA) response to a similar thread on Audiocircle: 
"We don't really encourage tube rolling in the Amber and certainly don't encourage the modification of our units. While you may be able to alter things in a way that you personally prefer, we believe the Amber to be voiced very well from the get go, shipping with quality tubes.

It is also difficult to support the opening of a sealed chassis without clearing it with us. This is unlike our "tube rollers paradise" or DHT series with external tube access.

I'd encourage you to give it a listen stick and contact us directly if there are tube issues or concerns.
Best,
Fred A."

Anybody know what a "listen stick" is?
ghasley
2,456 posts
 
My WAG is that it was a typo and he meant “stock”
lous's avatar
lous
200 posts
 

Not sure if you still have the DAC, but the 12AU7 and the Jupiter coupling caps are the big limitations. They dumb down the sound in the analog system because the DAC is a slightly tweaked version, if not identical to the more expensive DACs. I forget which DACs had which "engines". The newer once supposedly have identical digital sections.

Anyway, it's your analog section that is doing harm to the sound, the digital section sounds awesome. The easy part is converting from the awful sounding 12AU7 to a 6SN7. On eBay there's a seller, garage1217, who makes nice adapters which will do the job. You won't be able to install the cover unless you put a hole in it for the 6SN7. An even more impressive improvement comes from bypassing the Jupiter coupling caps with VHAudio's .1uf ODAM caps, and even better results can be had by using the ODAMs, AND the CuTF V-Caps. 

What you love will be vastly improved. The veiled and smeared sound will be gone. The best easily obtained tubes, though you will have to hunt for them, are pre 1964 Soviet 6H8Cs. They are a direct substitute for 6SN7s. You can certainly use the many boutique Chinses varieties, most of which are not half bad.

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