Lampizator Valve / Tube Rolling Review Thread

[plasmod3]

My B7 MKII came with svetlana 5u3c stock Recti. It is my 3rd fav behind RK 5u4g anniv and Tak274b.

I have a regular RK 5u4g as a backup that I haven’t tried yet. I’m hoping it is the same as RK5u4g anniversary- can’t see any difference internally.

With the svetlana a few points. Make sure it is

1. Winged c
2. Black plate


There are a few out there not of this particular combo

 

[godofwealth]

I think the 6N6P tube is quite critical to the sound as well. Just replaced the one in my Pacific with a new one, since the old one was at 33% of its lifetime according to my Amplitrex. Tried a pair of KR 242s again and it took off like a rocket ship. A little raucous sounding compared to the ultra smooth KR 300Bs, but on great jazz, it sounds really good (just listened to the great Gerry Mulligan Live at the Village Vanguard CD — what a great album that is).

 

[JSA]

Gents, has anyone tried this recti with titanium plate?
I have Linlai Elite 274b but prefer Acme 274B.
Does anyone have any experience with this titanium version (I hope it is not against forum rules to insert link to a product sale - I am not linked to any audio trading whatsoever):
Linlai Titanium: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...%3B-1%40salePrice%3BPLN%3Brecommend-recommend

 

[JSA]

On a different note. I have recently upgraded to Pacific from GG2. Quite a big step up.
Had a chance to give a listen to Horizon as well (since I am located really close to Lampi HQ) - really stunning!

 

[plasmod3]

Had an interesting comparison on the pac. It seems on the pac the bendix 6900 works better than the csf 5687 wa . This is the open plate wa that ppl are talking about on the horizon thread

 

[godofwealth]

Falling in love with the KR 242 tubes on my Pacific again. A lot of folks have problems with the high gain of the 242 tubes, but if you use a cheap or even an expensive solid state preamplifier, that’s bound to overload because they use these 5 cent op amps— ditch the cheapie solid state gear and use a quality tube preamplifier. Or even better, step up to a SET 300B amplifier like my 20 watt JJ 322 amplifier with a built in ALPS potentiometer to control the gain. No issues with overloading and you get rid of the preamplifier’s sonic signature and get a purer output. My first set of 242s had a faulty tube, but this new set is holding up well. It combines the beautiful tone of the 300Bs with the slam and dynamics that the 300Bs lack. I’m waiting for the tube risers to arrive from China so I can try the KR T-100 tubes I got a while back, talk about a massive tube. These don’t fit as is into the Pacific since their base is so wide.

 

[jbrrp1]

Falling in love with the KR 242 tubes on my Pacific again. A lot of folks have problems with the high gain of the 242 tubes, but if you use a cheap or even an expensive solid state preamplifier, that’s bound to overload because they use these 5 cent op amps— ditch the cheapie solid state gear and use a quality tube preamplifier. Or even better, step up to a SET 300B amplifier like my 20 watt JJ 322 amplifier with a built in ALPS potentiometer to control the gain. No issues with overloading and you get rid of the preamplifier’s sonic signature and get a purer output. My first set of 242s had a faulty tube, but this new set is holding up well. It combines the beautiful tone of the 300Bs with the slam and dynamics that the 300Bs lack. I’m waiting for the tube risers to arrive from China so I can try the KR T-100 tubes I got a while back, talk about a massive tube. These don’t fit as is into the Pacific since their base is so wide.

I'm totally loving the 242's in my Pacific working with a good solid state preamp that is happy with them. Prior to this I was using those very same RK T-100's. It's definitely a different presentation in my system, and I'll be interested to here your take on them in your system. Nothing beats the 242's in my current set up, and to me it's not even close.

 

[godofwealth]

I used to own a Levinson 32 that had variable gain settings. I imagine that could handle the 242 output at its lowest gain +6dB setting. Now I have an Audio Research Ref 3 tube preamp. But it’s lying unused after I got my JJ SET 300B amp with the ALPS potentiometer. I never thought I’d say this, but the JJ sounds better direct from the Pacific with no preamp in the chain. I agree now with Lukasz. It seems a sacrilege to muck up the sound of the Pacific with a solid state gain stage following it (or a tubed preamp gain stage). Best to go direct into the amplifier, assuming it has a simple potentiometer to adjust the gain. If I had to buy my Pacific again, I’d opt for the volume control version and throw away my preamplifier. My Quad 2905s have never sounded better than going direct into my JJ 300B amplifier. and I’ve spent almost 10 years trying many amplifiers! 20 watts doesn’t sound like a lot, but Quads don’t need a lot of power. In the bass, where most moving coil speaker designs suck up power from amplifiers, the Quads have high impedance like 60 ohms.

 

[abeidrov]

Falling in love with the KR 242 tubes on my Pacific again. A lot of folks have problems with the high gain of the 242 tubes, but if you use a cheap or even an expensive solid state preamplifier, that’s bound to overload because they use these 5 cent op amps— ditch the cheapie solid state gear and use a quality tube preamplifier. Or even better, step up to a SET 300B amplifier like my 20 watt JJ 322 amplifier with a built in ALPS potentiometer to control the gain. No issues with overloading and you get rid of the preamplifier’s sonic signature and get a purer output. My first set of 242s had a faulty tube, but this new set is holding up well. It combines the beautiful tone of the 300Bs with the slam and dynamics that the 300Bs lack. I’m waiting for the tube risers to arrive from China so I can try the KR T-100 tubes I got a while back, talk about a massive tube. These don’t fit as is into the Pacific since their base is so wide.

Not sure why I should change my preamp just because Lampizator does not adhere to the standard, which is commonly used by other digital source manufacturers.

 

[godofwealth]

Not sure why I should change my preamp just because Lampizator does not adhere to the standard, which is commonly used by other digital source manufacturers.

Not sure there is really a standard. I’ve owned DACs for 30 years and I’ve yet to see anyone adhere to a standard. For example, I have a Chord Dave, a great solid state DAC, and it puts out a healthy 8 volts from its outputs.

 

[abeidrov]

Not sure there is really a standard. I’ve owned DACs for 30 years and I’ve yet to see anyone adhere to a standard. For example, I have a Chord Dave, a great solid state DAC, and it puts out a healthy 8 volts from its outputs.

8 volts is really a lot! It’s probably even more than a Lampi with 242 tubes I thought, that most DACs and CD players produce 2 volts. Anyway, I‘ve auditioned many DACs and several CD players and never had any gain issues.

 

[godofwealth]

2 volts single ended and 4 volts balanced used to be the standard for CD players as set by Sony and Philips 40 years ago at the dawn of the CD era. But the audiophile DACs never adhered to that. Even the early Theta Digital DACs went over that limit. A well designed preamp should have sufficient overload margins. But even the early ARC Ref 1 was terrible in having very poor overload margins. It would distort at anything over 3 volts. Later ARC preamps have become much better. I was responding to an earlier post from someone on this thread where they found that their Pass integrated amplifier was overloading on the level produced by the 242 tube in the Pacific. If I has this issue, I would replace Pass integrated amplifier as it clearly has poor overload margins.

 

[Golum]

Check Aries Cerat DACs output V

 

[shadowlight]

Isn't the output on the Lampi Dac something that you can ask be set to 2v if you want?

 

[Golum]

They all have now Low/High gain setting and low one is more or less "industry standard" while high is obviously above. Horizon is fixed at "industry standard"...so its totally OK for all users

 

[godofwealth]

Check Aries Cerat DACs output V

Not surprising that it can produce 30 volts as it has a tubed output stage. Most tubed preamps can comfortably produce 50 volts at their output, although only into high impedance loads. That’s why Quads do well with tubes. In the bass impedances are usually around 50 ohms, and even low powered tube amps can swing a lot of voltage into such loads. Solid state amplifiers struggle with high impedance loads and their voltage output halves for each doubling of impedance.

 

[cpcat]

If you read back several years and synthesize the info- it appears to me the 242 in the Lampi was a “fortunate accident”…. It sounded so good that it was included in the design/capability —and —it sounded too good to omit.

So…you gets what u gets and if it works —it works really nice.

 

[cpcat]

Back to RK242s
RKPX25 in the closet for now.

 

[cpcat]

So px25 better than 242? Wait till you try the nos px25s .blows the rk out of the water

I think it depends on the day, how much beer I have had, what mood I am in , what rectifier happens to be off the closet shelf and on the couch and on deck, what artist I happen to be in to, crap…….

These are High quality problems is all I can say- just make sure you are listening to awesome tunes while you are at it

 

[godofwealth]

Speaking of awesome tunes, listening now to a great Ben Webster album with Gerry Mulligan on my Pacific playing a red book CD through my CEC TL0. Immortal jazz never sounded better on my Quads. Of course, I’m not drinking beer, but some rather fine Zinfandel red wine from a 100 year old Italian winery (Guiglielmo Winery) a mile from my house here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s right off of 101, so if you’re driving from San Francisco to LA, take a detour and sample some of the fabulous wines from our local wineries.