My experience with Lampizator

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Elberoth

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What I think A.Bill wants to know (so do I) is when you upsample PCM to DSD and play it on Lampi, how does it compare with The same PCM song on Trinity?

Trinity sounds better.
 

Elberoth

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I found this thread to be informative. My takeaway is that the U.S. distributor acted in bad faith: he told a prospective buyer ex post that a non-working trial unit could not be returned because the time the unit was not working counted toward the trial period. He did not communicate this to the buyer until the trial period had already lapsed. He only resolved the problem when the buyer went "public" on this forum. Buyer was roundly criticized for doing this, but didn't have any other recourse short of begging or hiring a lawyer. Lampizator may be run by a great guy, and his DACs may be the best money can buy, but he is not being well-served by the U.S. distributor's approach to sales and customer service, at least in this case.

You obviously got a wrong impression from this thread.

The OP had the unit for well over 2 weeks. They had resolved all issues within the first week. The distributor did not count the time the DAC was down. The OP had the DAC up and running for over 7 days (I think it was 9 days).

To me, it looks like a miscommunication between the distributor and OP, regarding the lenght of trial period. The distributor was quoting what was written on his website (7 days, no questions asked return policy), the OP claimed he was not aware of this fact and thought the trial is 'two weekends long'.

As a side note. I had spoken with ?ukasz about this misterious fuse / tube failure OP had experienced. ?ukasz told me he had a similar situation in the past, where the buyer had made a mistake inserting the tube (he put one of the tubes at 90 deg angle with regard to the correct socket possition; even though the tube has two slightly thicker pins and two smaller ones, which should prevent from inserting the tube the wrong way, it is still possible to do it if some force is used). The wrong tube position made the tube fail and blow up the AC fuse. After reinserting the tube the right way, and replacing the AC fuse, the customer found out that one of the channels was playing louder then the other one. After installing a fresh set of tubes (in the correct positions !), the DAC was working back OK.

The story sounds exactly like what the OP had experienced, although ?ukasz is not sure of that as he was not able to troubleshoot the DAC himself. So this is just a speculation.

In the end, OP had returned the DAC with two sets tubes (one set blown) and got a full refund.
 

Argonaut

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Trinity sounds better.

Adam....In your option, How close, sonically, in percentage terms, would you attribute the same track up sampled to DSD on the Lampizator when compared against the origional PCM with Trinity? I think folks are attempting to get their heads around whether they could Live on the difference, and order a DSD only machine from Lucas.
 

joaovieira

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wisnon

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Adam....In your option, How close, sonically, in percentage terms, would you attribute the same track up sampled to DSD on the Lampizator when compared against the origional PCM with Trinity? I think folks are attempting to get their heads around whether they could Live on the difference, and order a DSD only machine from Lucas.

Bear in mind that Adam is only upconverting to DSD128 at the moment and mostly with JRiver.

With his new (Balanced) GG Dac with DSD256 capability and possibly using HQP when it gets integrated into Roon, he will have a much improved experience. He runs balanced amps.
 

Elberoth

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I have the HQP, where I can upsample to 4x DSD. I also use it to upsample redbook PCM files to 176kHz for the Trinity.

It is hard to put it in % terms, as that will mean different things to different folks. Certainly, the difference is nowhere near as great as the price difference between the two (currently 12k euro vs 40k euro for the Trinity here in Europe).

In other words - if you can afford the Trinity go for it. But if you can only streach to the Lampi - you don't have to loose your sleep over this.

For the price, the Lampi is hard to beat on PCM and on DSD is rules supreme.
 

wisnon

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Adam, I thought your just sold B7 only played up to DSD128 and that the GG will be the first time at 256. Did you upgrade to DSD256 before? If so, apologies.
 

Elberoth

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My unit was one of the very first Big 7s with DSD 256 board installed.
 

Argonaut

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Thank you for the quantification Adam, For my part, DSD 256 only, balanced BiG 7 or GG would seem to be the most interesting path of consideration.
 

Alpinist

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Caelin, if it's a balanced GG, how does it have RCA outputs?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts as you get to know it.

Hi Ian,

I believe the balanced Big 7 and GG come with both XLR and RCA outputs standard.

Best,
Ken
 

caesar

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Hi MadFloyd,

I hope your digital journey has taken more positive turns. Care to give us an update? Thanks
 

MadFloyd

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Hi MadFloyd,

I hope your digital journey has taken more positive turns. Care to give us an update? Thanks

Not much to report. I'm still using the Playback Designs MPD-5 fed by a CAPS 3.

All my serious listening these days is vinyl.
 

bonzo75

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MadFloyd

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Cool! I imagine Kronos is outstanding then?

Yes. Best source that I've ever personally experienced, certainly the best in my home.
 

Alpinist

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Yes. Best source that I've ever personally experienced, certainly the best in my home.

That's tremendous, Ian, I am really happy for you! Have you considered the Pass XS Phono Stage? Mike is doing back flips over his. :)

Best,
Ken
 

wellpleased

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I doubt that anywhere near the price point of the Berkeley Reference DAC there will be, within 7 months, a new DAC that is better than that -- unless it comes from Berkeley (especially for the all important PCM, where all the music is). Hearing what the Alpha DAC 2 does in my system, and having informed myself about the technology, I have faith in that company's output. In fact, if I had the money and no chance to hear the Reference DAC before purchase (I do though), I would still buy it. And yes, if I'd have to wait 7 months, I would do that too.

I believe there will be one better than the Berekeley in less than 7 months time and it will cost quite a bit less (around the 10k mark).
 

John57

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Has anyone got a clue?

My new Lampi Amber III DAC is showing distortion as the music gets louder, just at normal listening levels. It’s so bad I’ve removed from my system.

What could that be?

Fred the US Dealer has been helpful, thank you Fred. Especially as I purchased direct from LAMPI so I’m not technically his client. I appreciate that. I’m working on implementing his suggestion. Good news to follow I hope.

Lukasz has responded.

Now I need time please to test the suggestions made.

I really appreciate everyone’s support. No one was more surprised than I was. I suspect but am not sure yet that there is a hidden tech reason I will elaborate once I am done dancing with cabling. Please be patient.
 
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