Anyone with recent Lampizator experience?

[msimanyi]

I'm strongly considering a Lampizator Atlantic 3 TRP DAC. I'm curious if anyone on this forum has relatively recent experience with Lampizator DACs. The key changes on the Atlantic were released Q3 2022, so earlier than that might be useful to hear about too, but the more recent the better.

Apparently there's a new "digital engine" (the digital side of the DAC) called Engine 11, which trickled down from their Horizon DAC and in fact was just incorporated in their Baltic DAC as well (positioned one step below The Atlantic.)

If anyone has positive or negative commentary, I'd appreciate hearing it.

 

[Ronin]

I have had a couple of Lampi's. Amber ans Baltic. It was a while back but no complaints at all. Definetly a niche company but I was able to email with question and got responses next day- from the owner I belive. Very good sound. I would call it "smooth detail". I used it at the time with a Pass amp and it worked marvelously. If you had an Issue, getting it fixed could be a problem with shipping. I have since stuck with "local" products where I can and just don't do tubes at all anymore as (for me anyway) SS components work as well such as dcs or Chord.... As I mentioned though, email support, operation and sound was very good. Best of luck

 

[msimanyi]

Thanks Ronin. The team at Lampizator North America have been quite helpful and explained how any returns would be processed if I want to repair, update or upgrade the unit. I'm moving forward with it under the assumption it won't need frequent shipments to Poland...

 

[msimanyi]

Following up on this: I did make the decision to order their Atlantic 3 TRP (fully balanced option, no volume control.) The US distributors (lampizator.com) offer a 7-day trial period, and they extended it a few days so I'd have two weekends to install it and start the break-in process.

Short version: this DAC has exceeded my hopes. It is incredibly revealing without being harsh, and I've never heard my system sound so smooth, detailed and involving. The sense of body for instruments and vocals is simply wonderful, and brass, strings, cymbals and voices keep impressing me with their recreations.

Longer version:

The tubes provided from the factory had some sort of issue, but they've taken care of that. It's likely broken in now, and I changed out the signal tubes to a different set with stunning results. Break-in supposedly takes up to a couple hundred hours, but that can be done without the amps on.

I'm feeding it from a Grimm MU1 streamer. That only outputs via AES, and the technical configuration of AES means that it can handle up to 24/192 but no higher. That's fine for me, as the Grimm upsamples and reclocks, and Lampizator says it *can* handle it if the front end is up to the task.

I understand the Baltic 3 is supposed to be outstanding too. It's a bit more cost-effective and still permits tube rolling. I've never heard one, but if it's anything like the Atlantic (and I suspect it is), the "life" in the music is addictive. If I sit down and start listening, I may very well be there until 1:00 am or later.

If you're looking for a DAC and these fit your budget, you could do far worse than something in the Lampizator line. I think if I won the Lotto, I'd buy their flagship Horizon in a heartbeat.

 

[Tosh]

Pretty sure Lampie himself is a member over at diyaudio.com if that helps?

 

[Big Dog RJ]

The Lampizator line of gear is superb! They make some very special DACs, and well worth the money spent.
At the time I was looking to upgrade from my McIntosh digital player, I narrowed down a short list of three units. One of those was a Lampi. It was superb on stats and really has that full bodied sound to it, absolutely nothing lacking.

The only thing that was bothering me is that my entire system is tube based. So I really didn't want to add more tooobs... not knowing which one goes bad or needs replacing when time's up, and that's the annoying thing for, since I'm not getting any younger. I have used tube digital gear in the past, CJ, Cary and ARC and they were fine but didn't quite last too long in tropical climes, not sure.

Anyway, this time round I opted for SS, and ended up with Esoteric digital gear. Although Esoteric is mighty fine, I really would have loved to have settled on a Lampi DAC. Can still get one and use the Eso as a transport, mmm... now there's a thought.

Enjoy those very fine tunes!
Woof! RJ

 

[msimanyi]

Thanks RJ! I totally get it. I'm largely SS with a small smattering of tubes. (The PS Audio M1200s have a tube input, and obviously the Lampi DAC.)

I continue to be wowed by this product, especially in combination with the Grimm MU1. I keep telling myself "go to bed", but then listen to four more songs. Pretty soon it's 1:00 am and I'm falling asleep where I sit...

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Thanks RJ! I totally get it. I'm largely SS with a small smattering of tubes. (The PS Audio M1200s have a tube input, and obviously the Lampi DAC.)

I continue to be wowed by this product, especially in combination with the Grimm MU1. I keep telling myself "go to bed", but then listen to four more songs. Pretty soon it's 1:00 am and I'm falling asleep where I sit...

Now that's enjoying the music!
Good stuff mate
Cheers, RJ

 

[Gordon Gray]

Goto the Whats Best forum and find a comfortable chair.

 

[msimanyi]

Goto the Whats Best forum and find a comfortable chair.

Oh yeah - been there, done that since well before the purchase. I was only pinging here to see if any fellow Martin Logan owners had gone that route with feedback to share.

Thanks Gordon.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Another thing I've noticed with the Lampi gear is that from model to model, overall quality and performance is quite a drastic difference. Not a subtle difference unlike most other gear, specially DACs. For example, when I was comparing the DCS or MSB line of DACs, each of their models and versions offered fantastic quality. When it came to their top of the gear, of course it was supreme performance but not by a far magin compared to the lower versions. I also found the same results when comparing the Esoteric line up.

I'm not quite sure what it is but on the Lampi gear, each model was quite different from the other version, and a remarkable level of musicality on their top of the line. Maybe I was hearing things differently... I don't know.

Anyway, with either model on the Lampi, you're going to really enjoy those fine tunes!
Cheers, RJ

 

[msimanyi]

I think that may have been based on earlier versions, unless you were listening within the last year. The development of the Baltic and Horizon, which I believe are their newest models, led to their new digital “Engine 11” which was then added to the Atlantic and possibly other models.

While the analog side differs between the models, I read a comment from an owner of both the Horizon and Baltic that they were shockingly similar. The Horizon is -$50k, the Baltic about 1/10th that.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Yes, most probably... and good point. In fact those Lampi models were the earlier series and they differed by quote a margin. That's correct, after the engine 11 was introduced and further upgrades done on their line up of DACs, they really became outstanding! I did audition two upgraded models last Feb and just one this Feb but that was their top of the line. Guess it was an unfair comparison on pricing, especially on SOTA associated gear but both systems were truly tops!

One was with the Neoliths and the other was on CLX's. Obviously I preferred the CLX based system because I'm biased towards CLX's but both systems were exceptionally superb!

Amplifiers were the VAC Statements that I truly admire and the other one had a full array of ARC gear, REF160M's and REF10 preamps, mighty fine indeed!

Woof! RJ

 

[msimanyi]

In case this thread is useful for anyone in the future, I've burned in the Atlantic 3 DAC (no volume control, fully balanced version) and started burning in a few different sets of tubes and a number of rectifiers:

• KR KT-88s
• Sophia Electric "Long Life" KT-88s
• Sophia Electric EL34s
• I'm on a waiting list for EAT KT-88s, but those may never come in.
• Takatsuki 274B rectifier
• PSVane ACME 274B rectifier
• Sophia Electric 274B "mesh" rectifier
• Sophia Electric 274B "aqua" rectifier (it's en route as I write this.)
• Emission Labs 274B and 5U4G (the latter is breaking in right now.)
• The factory Russian NOS rectifier, which is quite good.
• An old USAF rectifier, which I haven't yet installed.
• Another NOS rectifier that I don't recall off the top of my head, delivered this week from a UK tube vendor.

So far my favorite tube is the Sophia Electric EL34. I'm not dabbling in NOS tubes because as balanced DAC, it needs four signal tubes. It's exceptionally hard to find balanced quads of NOS tubes, especially the desirable ones.

So far, my favorite rectifier is the Takatsuki, but I'm still testing. What I *can* say is it's remarkable how much impact the rectifier has on the playback qualities. It not only affects spatial cues, but clearly shifts tonal balance and even bass / midrange / treble qualities. The combination is enormously satisfying due to the flexibility it permits. I am honestly loving this DAC, paired with a Grimm MU1 streamer/server.

 

[Carlsbad]

@msimanyi Thanks for your helpful post. I'm considering a Lampi DAC and I like to roll tubes.

I too have a grimm MU1 and it seems such a waste to waste the ability to play back in DSD. a buddy brought over his new PS Audio Directstream MK2 with latest firmware and it sounded wonderful.

Good to know about the matched quad requirements for the balanced model. I wondered why some had 4 tubes (plus rectifier) and some just 2. I'm spoiled with Decware and individual bias for each tube so I never had to have balanced sets. I think I'd be quite happy with the unbalanced version...

thanks, Jerry

 

[msimanyi]

@msimanyi Thanks for your helpful post. I'm considering a Lampi DAC and I like to roll tubes.

I too have a grimm MU1 and it seems such a waste to waste the ability to play back in DSD. a buddy brought over his new PS Audio Directstream MK2 with latest firmware and it sounded wonderful.

Good to know about the matched quad requirements for the balanced model. I wondered why some had 4 tubes (plus rectifier) and some just 2. I'm spoiled with Decware and individual bias for each tube so I never had to have balanced sets. I think I'd be quite happy with the unbalanced version...

thanks, Jerry

Depending on your budget, you may want to check out the upcoming (perhaps it's "new" by now) Poseidon DAC.

But I think the Atlantic 3 TRP is a fantastic DAC. It pairs quite well with my MU1 (which happily plays my DSD files, though with a conversion to DXD... so it's kind of the inverse of the PS Audio Mk2.)

If you decide to go with the Atlantic 3, be sure to discuss some of the upgrades with your distributor. I don't know that the binding posts are worth any extra money, but if I knew I could've upgraded some caps when mine was being built, I'd gladly have paid a little extra for that.