Pacific dac: Lampizator's new top of the line dac

Audiocrack

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I thought it sounded superb. The Salk speakers and Lampi amps coupled with the DAC sounded great. It was tough to tell how the Pacific compared with the Golden Gate as I had not heard it in a while but the high resolving yet smooth sound signature of the Lampi gear I have heard seemed to be there. It looked amazing with the tubes towering over the gold metal work.

Good to hear that you enjoyed yourself because I received mixed feedback. Maybe the relatively small room and the (to many) unknown speakers have something to do with this, although I am not sure about this. Anyway, in the end a product needs to be evaluated under controlled circumstances to really find out how good it is. Thanks again for your feedback.
 

bonzo75

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Good to hear that you enjoyed yourself because I received mixed feedback. Maybe the relatively small room and the (to many) unknown speakers have something to do with this, although I am not sure about this. Anyway, in the end a product needs to be evaluated under controlled circumstances to really find out how good it is. Thanks again for your feedback.

AC, around 3.5 years ago there was a GG room at Munich. Many liked it. I didn't like it at all. Bill and his friend didn't either, Bill decided not to go ahead with his Big 7 order (i was already an owner, the room made him reverse his, then he heard mine again and got one). Now both him and his friend are GG owners. You really cannot make out anything from a show, far less a dac, and the reason for us not liking it then was that we don't like the duos, which were then influencing the sound. Even a well set up dac at home can do only so much if one doesn't like the speaker. I have never liked any Lampi room in Munich. In fact this year's golden Atlantic set up was relatively better than previous GG set ups.
 

Tango

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Will be quite nice and interesting to give the Pacific these Dalby's feet.

IMG_3140.JPG

Tang
 

bonzo75

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Tango

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microstrip

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spiritofmusic

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Well, the GG comes w Stacore footers, potential owners should consider going the full monty with a Stacore Adv platform, at a fifth the cost of the component.
My cdp transformed on it moving from Shun Mook Giants.
 

Jazzhead

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Well, the GG comes w Stacore footers, potential owners should consider going the full monty with a Stacore Adv platform, at a fifth the cost of the component.
My cdp transformed on it moving from Shun Mook Giants.

Hi Spirit , so you feel the Stacore platforms to be more effective and predictable, in their performance envelope compared to the Mooks ? Regarding the ADV platform , how does one site their equipment on the fixed bearings. Surely the pre fitted factory footers , will clear them easily .
 

spiritofmusic

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Arshad, I've had an initially super positive experience with Mooks, but now actually quite poor in comparison.
When I have a bit of time later, I'll elaborate.
Suffice to say I truly believe Mooks are resonance enhancers, which works or doesn't work in a particular room or setup, Stacores like Herzan, Minus K etc are truly isolating.
Apples and oranges comparing them.
 
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spiritofmusic

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Arshad, Ked rightly called out my previous room in London for being harsh, reflective, poor boomy bass, zero imaging etc despite my pleas that the core tone was good.
His diagnosis of my room issues was spot on, and he lent me some Mooks Giants to try out.
And they contributed a lot to making the sound more palatable, textured and inviting, enhancing warmth and extension in the upper bass especially.
I bought the set from him, and whether I used them under my big 85kg balanced transformer or my smaller cdp, they were 100% beneficial. Ked still didn't rate my sound, and felt the Giants weren't ideally suited under a mid size component like my Eera, but the positive effects couldn't be denied.
A slam dunk impvt, and I invited the skepticism of Ron Resnick and other nay sayers when I announced my intention to Mook out my whole system, Giants under bpt and monos, Ultras under cdp and preamp.
Had I stayed in that room, I'd have put aside £00000s to Mook up fully.
---
Fast fwd 18 months, I'm now in my new room, and it's instantly 1000% better than my old space, and that's before I've installed the dedicated power grid or any other tweaks, just power out of domestic sockets into £0.99 off the shelf power cords.
I install the Giants under my cdp as a first tweak, and things are plain wrong. Bass is increased as in London, but now in all the wrong ways, muddy, unfocused, bloated. Replace them with a set of Symposium hard footers and things are motoring again.
Power grid goes in with balanced transformer, Symposium footers good, back to Giants, and if anything it's worse.
Ked informs me it must be "wrong" to use the Giants this way, only Ultras to be used under mid size components. Well, why were the Giants great under the "wrong" component in London? And putting the Giants under the transformer ("correct" here with the unit being oversized) was similarly anti climactic.
Cue disagreement w Ked.
So out they go, and in go the Stacores, first under transformer, then cdp, both with 100% stellar results.
---
Fast fwd to recently where I've been installing SR Black fuses in my gear, all great except for some ambiguity with new fuses in preamp. There are ELEVEN here, so some likelihood of needing longer burn in, but for the first time since I started tweaking out with Stacores, Sablon Elite pwr cords and these fuses, some move backwards in overall SQ with bass a little one note and slow.
I try my luck putting the Giants under my preamp psu, and things streamline in the bass quite a bit, and I resolve to at least use this one set of Giants in the system.
Note, again if one is to take Ked's view, the Giants are "wrong" in this application, with the psu even smaller than the cdp.
---
Things still not quite right however, so I try a couple of things, first correct the reverse phase on my spkr cbls (NAT amps designed to wire to spkrs out of phase, reversing + and - on the spkr cbl terminations). This is against the design ethos of the amps, but for the first time ever it sounds right with "correct" polarity direction.
And then I again remove the Mooks.
And now EVERYTHING snaps into place. Bass bloat, unwanted smearing etc is gone.
---
And so my on/off/on love affair with Mooks is definitely off again.
And all of this has cemented in my mind that Mooks enhance resonance frequency bands in the upper bass/lower mids. Where an acoustic is harsh and hollowed out as in my old apartment, they are a boon, exaggerating a warmth that is desirable but probably not accurate or on the recording.
In a more forgiving room where bass is not challenging, and there is no harshness to start, the Mooks IMHO act as a coloring device, here totally undesirable.
The Stacores on the other hand, don't draw attention to any one frequency, being even handed across the spectrum, and just open up so much of the musical canvas w'out drawing attention to themselves.
I realise my view might be a minority one, but I feel my experience of living with the Mooks over time in two vastly different environments gives me more than enough to work out what they do, and whether they're for me.
And they're undoubtedly not.
 
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Jazzhead

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Marc , thanks for that very comprehensive analysis . Back to the Pacifoc , awaiting some topless pics . There's plenty of the GG going around .
 

spiritofmusic

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Sure, a long winded way of saying YMMV.
And that Stacore isolates and Mooks enhance IMHO.
 

Stacore

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Footers.jpg

This is something we prototyped for Pacific together with plane spikes (I do not advocate spikes but here we acted as an OEM for Lampi :) ). This is brass slate CLD. We plan to offer such footers as hard couplers to our platforms.

Cheers,
Jarek
 

bonzo75

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Apparently, regarding these special 300b tubes made by KR specifically for the Pacific, from the website "Their magical sonic properties are due to the fact that anodes are covered with zirconium. It gives them that special dynamics of the 242 tube while retaining the beauty of the 300B."
 

Blue58

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Jan 20, 2013
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Apparently, regarding these special 300b tubes made by KR specifically for the Pacific, from the website "Their magical sonic properties are due to the fact that anodes are covered with zirconium. It gives them that special dynamics of the 242 tube while retaining the beauty of the 300B."

For that extra special one off you could have a platinum coated zirconium anode and they are available as mesh too.
Now that sounds a perfect match for the Pacific.
 

spiritofmusic

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Nice footers Jarek. Hoping to try those soon under cdp and the bpt on Stacores.
Will report back on my thread when that transpires.
Looks like they're a small but important part of the Pac design.
 

Stacore

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Thank you Marc. In the present Pacific Lukasz actually used spikes machined by Stacore Bogdan, and not the slate ones above.


Cheers,
 

bonzo75

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This would double the Pacific's price.

Tango was poking me since I am now the proud owner of a Dalby record clamp, or the owner of a proud Dalby clamp, depending on how you transfer the epithet
 

spiritofmusic

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So Ked, what tt at home are you using the clamp with?
 

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