Lampizator announcement: launch of our all new TOTL HORIZON DAC
- Thread starter Lukasz "Lampizator" Fikus
- Start date
In the Pacific you can leave two of the sockets empty if you are just using single ended. I would have thought this would be the same case for the Horizon? It would irk me to have two different tubes on the right as on the left. Leaving 2 sockets empty looks slightly better but not much.
Yes, that's a pity
Visually, I would have preferred the front/back situation like in the Pacific, GG, TRP Balanced DACs instead of the left/right affair in the Horizon...
It "looks" odd to my aesthetic sense
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Yes, that's a pity
Visually, I would have preferred the front/back situation like in the Pacific, GG, TRP Balanced DACs instead of the left/right affair in the Horizon...
I "looks" odd to my aesthetic sense
Why don't you place the dac sideways?
I have had my Horizon for 6 days now and today is the first day that I started to hear its potential. The sound has opened up quite a bit and the whole presentation is starting to sound very musical. I know this is just the beginning but I am very happy with what I am hearing.
I do think that cycling the power as opposed to having it play 24/7 is helpful in the break-in process.
I do think that cycling the power as opposed to having it play 24/7 is helpful in the break-in process.
Absolutely. I am hearing much bigger changes from day to day now that I am shutting things down at night.
On amps I did re caps at Turn off its sound A left off over night at turn on next day before a complete break in the caps would roll back to a thinner sound like new at turn on first time
then in a short time an hour or two the move forward would be heard
I can’t say what an H dac sounds brand new but the few I did would be good but lacked some meat and seemed to shout at times
but even after a day or two you start to be attached better to it’s sound.
then in a short time an hour or two the move forward would be heard
I can’t say what an H dac sounds brand new but the few I did would be good but lacked some meat and seemed to shout at times
but even after a day or two you start to be attached better to it’s sound.
Seems Francois is actively following this thread. He sent me this today to enlighten us re the 5687 Thomson CSF and the specs which suggested only 1000 hours of tube life. Here is what he sent me…….
I’ve see lampiz forum…
About 5687 CSF : life services (f. section) indicate 1000 hours… when tube is used in warmest environment (harsh environment !) it’s a hard test to confirm that it was build for high demands.
But normal condition lifetime 5687 CSF is 10.000 hours (6900 Bendix for 5000 hours). Of course, if amplifier use them at normal setting it can go highter).
Plaese inform the rest of the team…
Regards from France
(angel !) François
I agree with you however this way we had much shorter PCB traces, less noise, cleaner layout and better PSU fluctuation rejection so in the end the sound quality prevailed over the esthetic "feelings" ;-)Yes, that's a pity
Visually, I would have preferred the front/back situation like in the Pacific, GG, TRP Balanced DACs instead of the left/right affair in the Horizon...
It "looks" odd to my aesthetic sense
ABOUT SWITCHING POPS:
Some of our customers shared with us their concern about a pop noise during song change. Let me please explain the technicalities of it.
In the not so distant past, we used to listen to a whole album - on CD or LP and we were less OCD. The advance of Roon and similar GUI platforms enabled the listener to jump from one media to another even mid-song. And the playlists not only contain a mix of different PCM sampling rates but also DSD files plus internet streaming. At any given moment the user can jump frm MP3 to PCM 16/44 or 24/192 or 32/96 and to DSD of various speeds like 1x, 2x, 4x. 8x.
Every of these file formats requires a different master clock frequency and these masterclock signals come from quartz resonators, sometimes called clocks. Changing a clock between two different songs must result in re-boot of the whole DAC microprocessor. This makes HUGE bang noise if it isn’t muted.
In our case the task of muting that noise is particularily hard because a) our analog stage is very dynamic and fast , b) our chip converter is used almost “naked” without any pre or post processing, excessive filtering, or built in oversampling. Consequently we are on the edge and ultra fast muting is critical.
Now what we decided: to make the muting fast and benign, to not interfere with the music and sound quality, we can use 3 types of muting circuits. Slow, with 1 Ohm shorting resistance, medium fast with 5 Ohms shorting resistance and ultrafast with 10 Ohms shorting resistance. The ultrafast is the only one able to “catch” for example DSD512 switching. So we opted for this one at the expense of non-zero shorting resistance. The signal is shorted with 10 Ohms, not zero, and consequently we can hear 1% of the big bang noise. That is much less than a noise of LP pop, or putting needle in the grove, or changing an FM station , it will not damage tweeters, it will not scare you, but it is there.
It does not happen when we change DSD to DSD of another speed.
It does not happen when we change PCM 44 to 88 or 176 kHz
It does not happen when we change PCM 48 to 96 to 192 kHz
It does not happen when we change PCM 48 or 96 or 192 kHz to DSD or vice versa
It only happens when we change PCM 44 or 88 or 176 kHz to DSD and vice versa or to the PCM 48 or 96 or 192 kHz. Only then the change of resonator occurs.
Summarizing, for the sake of extreme sound quality we have a compromise, which in real life may never even occur or you may run into a benign pop much less loud than the music maybe once per week and we are ready to have that compromise.
A band aid solution is to choose in Roon settings > DSP > upsampling > DSD upsampling and all files no matter what format will be played as DSD and no clock change will ever occur.
Having said all that - only USB input is affected by this, not Toslink, not S/PDIF, not AES/EBU, not HDMI and not RJ45 input i2s.
Some of our customers shared with us their concern about a pop noise during song change. Let me please explain the technicalities of it.
In the not so distant past, we used to listen to a whole album - on CD or LP and we were less OCD. The advance of Roon and similar GUI platforms enabled the listener to jump from one media to another even mid-song. And the playlists not only contain a mix of different PCM sampling rates but also DSD files plus internet streaming. At any given moment the user can jump frm MP3 to PCM 16/44 or 24/192 or 32/96 and to DSD of various speeds like 1x, 2x, 4x. 8x.
Every of these file formats requires a different master clock frequency and these masterclock signals come from quartz resonators, sometimes called clocks. Changing a clock between two different songs must result in re-boot of the whole DAC microprocessor. This makes HUGE bang noise if it isn’t muted.
In our case the task of muting that noise is particularily hard because a) our analog stage is very dynamic and fast , b) our chip converter is used almost “naked” without any pre or post processing, excessive filtering, or built in oversampling. Consequently we are on the edge and ultra fast muting is critical.
Now what we decided: to make the muting fast and benign, to not interfere with the music and sound quality, we can use 3 types of muting circuits. Slow, with 1 Ohm shorting resistance, medium fast with 5 Ohms shorting resistance and ultrafast with 10 Ohms shorting resistance. The ultrafast is the only one able to “catch” for example DSD512 switching. So we opted for this one at the expense of non-zero shorting resistance. The signal is shorted with 10 Ohms, not zero, and consequently we can hear 1% of the big bang noise. That is much less than a noise of LP pop, or putting needle in the grove, or changing an FM station , it will not damage tweeters, it will not scare you, but it is there.
It does not happen when we change DSD to DSD of another speed.
It does not happen when we change PCM 44 to 88 or 176 kHz
It does not happen when we change PCM 48 to 96 to 192 kHz
It does not happen when we change PCM 48 or 96 or 192 kHz to DSD or vice versa
It only happens when we change PCM 44 or 88 or 176 kHz to DSD and vice versa or to the PCM 48 or 96 or 192 kHz. Only then the change of resonator occurs.
Summarizing, for the sake of extreme sound quality we have a compromise, which in real life may never even occur or you may run into a benign pop much less loud than the music maybe once per week and we are ready to have that compromise.
A band aid solution is to choose in Roon settings > DSP > upsampling > DSD upsampling and all files no matter what format will be played as DSD and no clock change will ever occur.
Having said all that - only USB input is affected by this, not Toslink, not S/PDIF, not AES/EBU, not HDMI and not RJ45 input i2s.
AXPONA Setup is underway...
We are looking forward to showing the Horizon off in the Nirvana A Ballroom tomorrow!
We are looking forward to showing the Horizon off in the Nirvana A Ballroom tomorrow!
Great setup! Please, do not forget to put Aurender in “critical listening mode”, the difference is quite significant.
I always hear it when going from PCM to DSD and vice versa Thank you for the explanationDeep inside me, I knew there is a reason for this
So I’m at expona
no one knows me so I can ask easy questions and get honest answers
I made it twice into the room where the H dac is
it’s a big room but seating is reasonably close
I’ll comment tomorrow on all electronics in better details
the tt was playing sounded good not great but had a nice analog sound
I took some picks of the H dAC it has the kt170 tubes
and a tak 274b recti oddly it look familiar thats a dig to a bud
for anyone who had one on order
any thoughts if I hope it’s good or I hope I made the right decision can be answered
I kindly asked the man to play the h dac or when will it be played
he said we play it all day but rotate a tt snd tape deck
it’s all vac but speakers I don’t know name.
All can say for now was holy xxx wow xxx
far above his ttt or tape deck
It made the room morph into a real jazz venue
from drums to strings to top end
it had crazy dynamics and ultra details yet not a hint it was digital
it truly blew my mind
I got pics and videos
it Truly is way above any lampi I heard but more importantly it had all the virtues of top SS dacs but all the glory of top end tube sound.
it’s simple music that creates an event in front of you. this is a game changing event in sound that at the end is a mic drop.
and for those who think the H dac needs an ultra expensive server well I’m not so sure
it’s source was aurender n30
a solid steamer but not 40 to 140 k lol.
no one knows me so I can ask easy questions and get honest answers
I made it twice into the room where the H dac is
it’s a big room but seating is reasonably close
I’ll comment tomorrow on all electronics in better details
the tt was playing sounded good not great but had a nice analog sound
I took some picks of the H dAC it has the kt170 tubes
and a tak 274b recti oddly it look familiar thats a dig to a bud
for anyone who had one on order
any thoughts if I hope it’s good or I hope I made the right decision can be answered
I kindly asked the man to play the h dac or when will it be played
he said we play it all day but rotate a tt snd tape deck
it’s all vac but speakers I don’t know name.
All can say for now was holy xxx wow xxx
far above his ttt or tape deck
It made the room morph into a real jazz venue
from drums to strings to top end
it had crazy dynamics and ultra details yet not a hint it was digital
it truly blew my mind
I got pics and videos
it Truly is way above any lampi I heard but more importantly it had all the virtues of top SS dacs but all the glory of top end tube sound.
it’s simple music that creates an event in front of you. this is a game changing event in sound that at the end is a mic drop.
and for those who think the H dac needs an ultra expensive server well I’m not so sure
it’s source was aurender n30
a solid steamer but not 40 to 140 k lol.
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