The Sound of Pacific: The Newest DAC from Lampizator

mr.gregdee

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Oct 3, 2016
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Is it correct that unlacquered brass instruments sound better or at least different? Perhaps Lukasz has heard both in the Pacific and prefers lacquered?
Now I wonder why Bronze wasn't used as this is surely a better sounding alloy.

Barry , I guess that bronze would be much more expensive an also much more difficult to work with
 

bonzo75

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Steve (the OP) should have posted the pics of his system, which was set up with consulting help from JL Audio's Barry Ober
 

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bonzo75

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If by "big" music refers to orchestral music ...... that few exhibitors have the courage to play it.

As someone who benchmarks only to classical - this Wednesday I went to Beethoven's Cello Sonata 2 and Shostakovich's Cello Sonata, today I saw Valery Gergiev conduct Stravinsky's Symphony in C and Scheherazade, Tuesday I will watch Haitink and Emmanuelle Axe perform Beethoven's Emperor, and Saturday Sarah Connolly perform Mahler's Das Lied - I have never seen any digital come close to Lampi's performance on any classical especially orchestral. The bigger the tutti, the better it gets (with the right tuning with valves), as it differentiates the tone of various instruments giving them their realistic density, space, and decay.

Lukasz says that the Pacific excels on the peaks and should be a much bigger step ahead. Tbh I found the Big 7 sufficient. So I am equally frustrated to see Pacific playing small scale music through small scale speaker at shows. I also hope dac displays at show have a bit more than their own streaming catalogue, which always frustrates me in Munich as this means the tracks one can play are usually restricted. Having a CD transport allows one to use one's own CDs. Hopefully the Harrogate show (which I will have to unfortunately miss) has more classical flowing through the Pacific, Kronzilla, and the hORNS Universum, as all those excel at orchestral.
 

Steve Rowan

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Feb 12, 2012
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Hi,
Yep should have displayed my system. This one is pretty accurate. The only change (a big one actually) was moving the subs from behind the speakers to the side walls half way in the middle of the room. This move was dictated by the room size. The subs just sound right there. The Vs stayed where they are. Vs sound great there as Mr. Duddleston designs them so they can be close to the sidewalls. I’m using the WaVelet processor to control the Vs and 5he JL Audio CR-1 Crossover. Vs are considered satellites and crossover point is 70.

The System is quintuple amped with two CODA stereo amps doing left and right Treble an$ midrange duties. They are 150 Watts Class A. The V bass and sub base are built in 500 and 1000 watt Legacy Audio Class D Amplifiers. The JL Audio subwoofers are 3000 Watts short term. They give the system a foundation to rest upon. They widened and deepened the soundstage, added tons of spatial info not heard before.

Sorry no pictures with the Pacific in System but I will post soon.

I use the TRL Dude preamp. The entire system except the subs are powered by two PurePower 3000s. Cables are Belden 8402 and the excellent Western Electric 16 and 10 gauge wire is used for the speaker and power cables. I’ll be glad to answer any other questions.
 

Audiophile Bill

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Mar 23, 2015
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Any user reports from Pacific owners? Rudolph - how are you getting on with yours?
 

bonzo75

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Audiocrack

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Any user reports from Pacific owners? Rudolph - how are you getting on with yours?

Hello Bill,

I received the Pacific a day before Miguel arrived. Miguel’s stay was very hectic because an awful lot needed to be done. Due to time restraints this Pacific was not played in by the factory, while I had no time to burn it in while Miguel visited me. After Miguel left I started burning in the Pacific but Lukasz needed it back urgently. I could hear that the Pacific was still getting better (so apparently it was not yet fully burned) when I needed to pack it for its return to Poland.

So I suppose I have not yet heard the Pacific in full glory. In all honesty, at the time the Pacific left it was bettered by the (fully burned in) Tidal Camira dac.
 

bonzo75

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Was it better than the GG in your system?
 

Audiocrack

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Was it better than the GG in your system?

It was definately more silent than the GG. But please keep in mind: I heard the Pacific in its worst phase because it needed to be burned in. And before I was able to do so the Pacific was picked up again.

Lukasz will visit me somewhere in the future with a Pacific dac he is completely happy about as regards pcm and dsd replay.
 

Audiophile Bill

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Thanks Rudolph. How is the Tidal dac?
 

Audiocrack

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Thanks Rudolph. How is the Tidal dac?

Hello Bill, may I refer you to my comments in the Tidal La Assoluta thread? The Tidal Camira is a hell of a dac; I would go as far as to conclude it is the ‘best’ dac I have heard so far in my two systems. In combination with the LA’s and the Tripoint Emperor ‘grounding box’ and Empress filters the Camira dac is utterly transparent and beautiful sounding at the same time.

The Camira dac in my LA/Kondo system brought Miguel - who does not like digital at all and therefore has no digital at home - literally to tears (twice). This is saying something because Miguel is a very critical listener with incredible sharp ears.

Actually quite a few Camira dacs have already landed in the UK. Maybe you can give it a listen?

And I suppose now we need to go back to the topic of this thread, the Lampi Pacific dac.
 
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Lee

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Legolas

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Hello Bill, may I refer you to my comments in the Tidal La Assoluta thread? The Tidal Camira is a hell of a dac; I would go as far as to conclude it is the ‘best’ dac I have heard so far in my two systems. In combination with the LA’s and the Tripoint Emperor ‘grounding box’ and Empress filters the Camira dac is utterly transparent and beautiful sounding at the same time.

The Camira dac in my LA/Kondo system brought Miguel - who does not like digital at all and therefore has no digital at home - literally to tears (twice). This is saying something because Miguel is a very critical listener with incredible sharp ears.

Actually quite a few Camira dacs have already landed in the UK. Maybe you can give it a listen?

And I suppose now we need to go back to the topic of this thread, the Lampi Pacific dac.

Interesting DAC, seems along the same lines as the TotalDAC? Would like to hear it, but my initial thought are I tend to prefer a tube one stage. Might be a nube question, but does any discrete array DAC need a FPGA to control the ladder? If yes, not sure what is unique in the Camira. The i2S direct link maybe interesting.
 

Audiocrack

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Interesting DAC, seems along the same lines as the TotalDAC? Would like to hear it, but my initial thought are I tend to prefer a tube one stage. Might be a nube question, but does any discrete array DAC need a FPGA to control the ladder? If yes, not sure what is unique in the Camira. The i2S direct link maybe interesting.

I am a tube man but according to some using a tube based source (such as a dac) in a very transparent system is not ideal. That is because the intrinsic tube noise harms the transparency of the source component, something that cannot be remedied in the rest of the audio chain because ‘garbage in, garbage out’. My Tidal LA/Kondo/ Tripoint Emperor mk II combination is utterly transparent and is therefore ideally partnered with a very transparent and at the same time ‘musical’ dac. The Tidal Camira is such a dac. I cannot explain technically why it is so good, but it is (to my ears): with the help of the Tripoint components I am hearing more info/details than ever before while the Camira at the same time appeals to me in an emotional way. So the Camira is a very transparent as well as a very musical dac, an ideal combination in my view.

Maybe the Lampi Pacific dac can do the same or might sound be ever better in my LA system, who knows? That is something I will find out in due time.
 

Legolas

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I am a tube man but according to some using a tube based source (such as a dac) in a very transparent system is not ideal. That is because the intrinsic tube noise harms the transparency of the source component, something that cannot be remedied in the rest of the audio chain because ‘garbage in, garbage out’. My Tidal LA/Kondo/ Tripoint Emperor mk II combination is utterly transparent and is therefore ideally partnered with a very transparent and at the same time ‘musical’ dac. The Tidal Camira is such a dac. I cannot explain technically why it is so good, but it is (to my ears): with the help of the Tripoint components I am hearing more info/details than ever before while the Camira at the same time appeals to me in an emotional way. So the Camira is a very transparent as well as a very musical dac, an ideal combination in my view.

Maybe the Lampi Pacific dac can do the same or might sound be ever better in my LA system, who knows? That is something I will find out in due time.

I dunno, I found the opposite. Noise in a small pre-amp single line stage is tiny. And linearity and timbre of tubes to me just nails it. Fets or SS based line stages at these tiny levels of signal I find can do a lot of damage. Switching devices (fets) create their own form of noise, regardless of the 'measurements'. And remember most of the best Phono stages, where the levels of signal are even smaller in level (very fragile) those stages tend to use tubes.

So, I do not agree with your hypothesis.

Back to DACs in general, the Camira states it is using a FPGA as a 'unique' operation with the ladder array. Doesn't any ladder need a FPGA? And why is it processing the data? Isn't it best to send it unaltered? Sorry, more questions. I would be interested in more comparisons on the DAC, to see if it doing (saying) anything new.
 

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