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New Lampizator Level 4/ Version 4 DAC in the house

Wonder if any other new owners of this DAC are out there as I find it to be the finest digital playback I have heard to date. This is the first digital front end piece of gear I have owned that has transformed my music.

Ya, other digital gear does this or that better, but this Lampy breaks through to a new level of musical enjoyment. Clear view into the music helping the speakers just disappear. Only 24 hours of break in and the music flows so sweet, intimate and seemingly without boundaries.

Looking under the hood I see an impressive power supply with films caps and several high quality chokes. Point to point silver wired except for the digital and USB boards. This is a three tube player that is tube rectified. One has the option for SS rectification if desired.

Ya, I love this Lampy!
grannyring
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Agear,
Based on my listening the Lampizator 7 is a superb choice. It simply makes music which is much easier said than done. I also heard rooms utilizing the DCS and MSB stacks, I'll gladly take the presentation of the Lamp 7 instead. It justs depends on what truly touches you.
Charles,
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Agear - look, there is nothing sinister about my comments of tubes not being the best choice for digital. Any EE worth his salt will agree with this. I have 30 years of salt in my ears.

This is a lot like the habit that many designers have to use HC logic family for digital circuits that must maintain low-jitter. Makes no sense at all, except to those that don't understand the physics.

There also companies that offer tube analog buffer stages that don't understand why these are interesting. They actually do work well in many cases. It has to do with replacing a low-drive strength DAC output buffer with one with high drive strength, better adapted to drive a cable with capacitance. The ideal thing would just have a better output stage in the DAC.

There is a lot of blind leading the blind designers out there. Sometimes bad habits and choices get copied. I've seen it all. Even junior designers from Sony making fundamental errors in high-end CDPs. Modding a LOT of components for over 10 years opened my eyes.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
Agear - did you go to THE Show at CES?
jwm
918 posts
 
I'm sorry to say that the Lampizator room did not have one of the best sounds at the show. It was just average. The speakers were brand new and the room was very small. I however, liked what I saw and after talking with the head man himself ordered one. I hope I will like it as time will tell.
clio09
3,374 posts
 
Best room at The Show was Zesto Audio with the Merrill TT. Having George Merrill there himself didn't hurt either. Found him quite entertaining. Like JWM found the Lampizator room average. That said nothing touched the Highwater Sound room at the Venetian. Okay a little biased as they used our 300B's, but I was working the Concert Fidelity room and while the TAD CR-1s were quite good, those Cessaro's are to die for.
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