Lampizator DSD DAC

[bmoura]

I dont use Windows, but a few Windows buddies have told me that they get ASIO to work with the Lampi USB passing DSD. Jabs is one, for example.

DSD256 is solved, but will take a couple months to design and print the PCBs for wide scale availability. I hear the new design improves all DSD playback rates!

I'd be interested in hearing how they were able to get ASIO support working with the Lampizator DSD DAC. I checked with Lampizator when reviewing the DAC and they told me DoP was the only supported option for playback.

On DSD 256, I hear it's under development. I'm ready to send in my DAC for the upgrade when the time comes !

 

[wisnon]

The DSD over USB format is detected when PCM sample with an alternate sequence of 32
FA05 token in the MSB part is received. The DSD managed frequencies are 2.822 Mhz, 3.072
Mhz, 5.644 Mhz, 6.144 Mhz. With ASIO Driver http://www.amanero.com/asio it's possible to
play native DSD extending the range to DSD256 and DSD512.
An incoming DSD stream is indicated by an asserted signal in a specific DSD ON pin of the
output comb connector and the I2S DATA and I2S FSCLK pins become the DSD Left/Right
output pins.

 

[marslo]

I had the Auralic for demo when the Lampi distributor came over for a L5 demo - no contest. Bought the L5 then upgraded to a 7.

Agreed - at least as far as dsd is concerned. It's why I traded Vega and bought Lampi dsd dac.

 

[Alrainbow]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/746057/lampizator-head-dac/15#post_11241034

 

[LL21]

Presume people have read about the new Lampizator reference DAC?...i got a call from two friends who are looking at getting it...

http://www.lampizator.eu/NEWDAC/Lampizator/The_Golden_Gate_DAC.html

According to the website i was steered to by a friend, it is "a Big7 DAC made of the MOST expensive boutique parts chosen by our customers in their wish-list survey...

1. Silver WBT solder used throughout
2.Furutech IEC inlet AC socket
3.WBT silver RCA output sockets
4.Furutech RCA digital input
5.ATOM Vishay first capacitor after the tube
6.Mundorf electrolytes in second stage of PSU
7.Mundorf Foil MKP capacitors in third stage of powewr supply just before the tube anode
8.Metal-Film laser cut resistor MLT in Anode Load
9.Teflon sockets for all 3 tubes
10.Output capacitors are the huge Jupiter-Copper 1uF caps, bypassed by Duelund Pure Silver caps. Yes, a hybrid, best of both worlds, supposedly beating even pure silver one-cap solution.
11.All wiring is 26 GA stranded silver in teflon
12.Rectifier tube is EML-Mesh Plate 5U4G
13.Music Tubes are Wester Electric Replica 101D / Metal base Psvane
14.Digital input SPDIF capacitor is Jupiter Wax Copper 100nF
15.Packing in a special customized stage case
16.Details of decorative finish are to be announced."

 

[sleepfox]

Wow! I wonder how would a golden gate dac be priced!

 

[Hiro]

On DSD 256, I hear it's under development. I'm ready to send in my DAC for the upgrade when the time comes !

Lampizator's website already lists 256x DSD option available for the Big Seven and Level 4 DAC.

I'm not sure if the support for 11.2MHz DSD is provided by Lampizator's famed pure DSD module or some off-the-shelf DAC chips though.

 

[bmoura]

Lampizator's website already lists 256x DSD option available for the Big Seven and Level 4 DAC.

I'm not sure if the support for 11.2MHz DSD is provided by Lampizator's famed pure DSD module or some off-the-shelf DAC chips though.

We will see. As I understand it, the new DSD 256fs option involves an upgrade to the USB Input Card. So it could work quite well with the gently filtered DSD in their DSD DAC.

 

[Andre Marc]

Presume people have read about the new Lampizator reference DAC?...i got a call from two friends who are looking at getting it...

http://www.lampizator.eu/NEWDAC/Lampizator/The_Golden_Gate_DAC.html

According to the website i was steered to by a friend, it is "a Big7 DAC made of the MOST expensive boutique parts chosen by our customers in their wish-list survey...

1. Silver WBT solder used throughout
2.Furutech IEC inlet AC socket
3.WBT silver RCA output sockets
4.Furutech RCA digital input
5.ATOM Vishay first capacitor after the tube
6.Mundorf electrolytes in second stage of PSU
7.Mundorf Foil MKP capacitors in third stage of powewr supply just before the tube anode
8.Metal-Film laser cut resistor MLT in Anode Load
9.Teflon sockets for all 3 tubes
10.Output capacitors are the huge Jupiter-Copper 1uF caps, bypassed by Duelund Pure Silver caps. Yes, a hybrid, best of both worlds, supposedly beating even pure silver one-cap solution.
11.All wiring is 26 GA stranded silver in teflon
12.Rectifier tube is EML-Mesh Plate 5U4G
13.Music Tubes are Wester Electric Replica 101D / Metal base Psvane
14.Digital input SPDIF capacitor is Jupiter Wax Copper 100nF
15.Packing in a special customized stage case
16.Details of decorative finish are to be announced."

I would love to know why the designer was quoted in the NY Post as saying hi Rez digital was a waste of time, and that Redbook CD i offers more than enough resolution.

 

[wisnon]

We will see. As I understand it, the new DSD 256fs option involves an upgrade to the USB Input Card. So it could work quite well with the gently filtered DSD in their DSD DAC.

Yes, still "chipless".

 

[wisnon]

I would love to know why the designer was quoted in the NY Post as saying hi Rez digital was a waste of time, and that Redbook CD i offers more than enough resolution.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=131665.0

Discussion here.

 

[Hiro]

I would love to know why the designer was quoted in the NY Post as saying hi Rez digital was a waste of time, and that Redbook CD i offers more than enough resolution.

It was disappointing to see Lukasz Fikus defending low-res/CD digital audio, but then again, he was always a big fan of redbook cd, wasn't he? Old habits die hard I guess...

 

[wisnon]

It was disappointing to see Lukasz Fikus defending low-res/CD digital audio, but then again, he was always a big fan of redbook cd, wasn't he? Old habits die hard I guess...

It was a sound bite from a 80 minute interview Fred told me. Seems that Luk was basically saying that MASTERING was far more importatnt than resolution/format, which we all agree with. I am sure that Luk will agree that with all other things being well done, then hires will sound better than RBCD, but we know all other things are never equal.

I love DSD and hires, but have to agree that mastering carries most weight. A well done RBCD will beat a shitty hires and merely upsampling in PCM is not magical. It may be the case that upsampling in DSD above DSD128 IS magical though....

BTW, RBCD is NOT lowRes...its lossless so at worst MEDIUM res. LoL

LowRes is the mp3 stuff.

 

[Hiro]

It was a sound bite from a 80 minute interview Fred told me. Seems that Luk was basically saying that MASTERING was far more importatnt than resolution/format, which we all agree with.

Why does it always have to be about what is more important? Why not have both? It's such a waste of great mastering to have it truncated to 16bit/44k resolution.

 

[jkeny]

Why does it always have to be about what is more important? Why not have both? It's such a waste of great mastering to have it truncated to 16bit/44k resolution.

Agreed, it seems to me that a similar argument could be "the technical abilities of the musicians is much more important to what we hear"

 

[Hiro]

Agreed, it seems to me that a similar argument could be "the technical abilities of the musicians is much more important to what we hear"

One could also argue that optimal microphone placement during recording is MORE important than mastering, as even the best mastering in the world won't help much in the case of a terrible original recording. But somehow nobody is using this argument against using the best mastering possible for every recording.

 

[wisnon]

Why does it always have to be about what is more important? Why not have both? It's such a waste of great mastering to have it truncated to 16bit/44k resolution.

Totally agree. I want it all and I want it now! LoL

 

[wisnon]

One could also argue that optimal microphone placement during recording is MORE important than mastering, as even the best mastering in the world won't help much in the case of a terrible original recording. But somehow nobody is using this argument against using the best mastering possible for every recording.

Poor analogies though guys. At the mastering level there is much more power...indeed the release format and resolution is decided there as well. The point is that if FORMAT is relatively marginal, then why is all the focus there when the butchering is upstream? At least MQA purports to UNDO the ill-effects of the ADC filter done at the upstream studio level. That intuitively seems to be a more productive avenue to pursue.

Chain of custody seems to be where its at. When all that is assured, THEN I want the best resolution feasible in the format that correspondes to the recording equipment used, ie PCM origin or DSD/Tape origin.

As this is a DSD Dac thread...let me plunk for DSD everytime. LoL

 

[Hiro]

Poor analogies though guys. At the mastering level there is much more power...

On the contrary, it's a very good analogy. Because recording engineers have much more power than mastering engineers, who have to work with the original recording, and no mastering process will make a stellar product out of the recording sabotaged by incompetent recording engineers. Ask a mastering engineer. And yet it's no reason to not use the best possible mastering any time.

At least MQN purports to UNDO the ill-effects of the ADC filter done at the upstream studio level. That intuitively seems to be a more productive avenue to pursue.

MQA will save us all haha. Yeah right. Do you believe it?

From what I know it only tries to compress the size of a hi-rez PCM file, but its use is not really necessary, as disk space isn't really a problem.

 

[bmoura]

It was disappointing to see Lukasz Fikus defending low-res/CD digital audio, but then again, he was always a big fan of redbook cd, wasn't he? Old habits die hard I guess...

Best bet is to read Lukasz' reply to the article on the web at http://www.cepro.com/article/stop_the_audiophile_hypocrisy_support_neil_young/

He believes that the Lampizator products that play PCM can deliver a better result than many earlier products and that hi resolution audio, specifically DSD, takes you to an even higher level.
That's pretty consistent with what he has told me in the past when I interviewed him for Positive Feedback Online. (See http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue74/lampizator_7.htm)