Lampi GG inbound

[Golum]

Well the story about this one happened quite unexpectedly as till like a month ago I was extremely happy with the performance of my let's call it boutique DAC developed and produced by a good friend of mine from Serbia. Actually I still find it as an fantastic piece of gear with great $/sound ratio.
But than, as it happens in life, I was lucky enough to finally meet up with Norman aka Wisnon to have a chat and listen to his system as I guess for US standards we live in the same neighborhood :-). Needles to say things there got very interesting as I always wanted to hear a bit of the Lampi magic. That was actually the first time I heard it in his system and of course I had a wish to hear it in my system. As Norm had Der Siebener on hand for the home demo that's what we did and I assume based on the title of this thread you already know how this story finished.
I was simply blown away with the fluidity of the sound, musicality, soundstage, tonality, I mean everything...I still have a feeling that this sound is on a daily basis in my head, listening to the music or not. Just incredible feeling which I honestly never experienced.
So at the end I really could not resist and ordered an GG which I hope will be awaiting for me when I arrive back from the vacation.

Still there is one more thing, which for me personally, is xyz times more important and that is that I met a person through this hobby which I hope I can call a friend now, who is absolutely in every possible way a fantastic person and a human being. So Norman THANKS a lot for everything and looking forward for many more nice chats and listening sessions!!
BTW for more tech details about incoming GG I believe Norm is the right person to answer as there will be some super amanero USB or whatever inside - among the rest of the regular things.
And not to forget - Lukasz thanks for help and speedy support!

[joeinid]

Big Congratulations!

[Mike]

Very nice!! Congrats. Enjoy in good health.


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[Golum]

Big guy arrived yesterday so it was time to play with a new toy for the boy :-).
In general what can I say, especially to the group here, who heard probably all the best toys money can buy...for my ears it sounds purely amazing in all aspects - sweet, punchy, dynamic, huge soundstage, accurate,...I'm sure I never had a sound in my room as it's now...
DAC arrived with stock 101d and 274b tubes, and I'll be using it as is for time being - to get used to this sound signature and later on I plan with Normans help to do some tube rolling and see where this brings me...
On top it's still not properly in the rack due to size, so during the weekend I will need to reshuffle the entire rack to fit it in properly.
At this moment I kind of have 3 DACs in the house - not bad at all :-) (Lampi GG, Lapmi Der Siebener, Acoustic Invader).

What Norm send me this morning and which is probably worthwhile mentioning is the Super Amanero I have on the USB and this is some tech info form Lukasz:

"Super Amanero is our best effort of maximalization ofAmanero potential by hardware upgrade.What we did:
1. Replace a basic two supply regulation with six supply,ultra low noise regulated supplies
2. Replace audio clock oscillators with ultra high endCrystek Audio clocks with separate independent power supplies
3. Replace the 12 MHz USB clock with precise Crystekclock with own supplies.
4. Add firmware flashing and erasing switch
5. Add superb capacitors everywhere
6. Improve grounding
7. Load our selection of Amanero firmware (custom flash)optimized around DSD512 and Linux/Windows
All this is designed, concieved and made in house byLampizator team after the experience with over 1000 Amanero modules used andtweaked before.
Lukasz Fikus
LampizatOr"

[leftside]

Does the Super Amanero negate the need for devices such as the ultraRendu?

[Golum]

Honestly I have no idea - for me it's kind of plug and play with Aries and works like a charm.

Cheers

[Golum]

I guess with Lampi stuff you really need to know what you want due to huge number of options and the urge to play with the output tubes. During the course of the months I discovered that having balanced version is just not for me as it was limiting me in swapping the tubes (too difficult to find matched quads of NOS and also to expensive in any other iteration) and also having the active preamp i really did not need volume control in GG.
So now equipped with the exact idea what i want i ordered with again massive help of Wisnon single end version of Golden Gate 2 with the new heater selector and new RK 5u4g recti tube. Yesterday it arrived and I'm honestly in a total heaven. It is not Pacific (will get there one day) but for me GG2 is such a big step forward vs GG that I'm quite shocked. I mean everything is just so much better that i was barely able to go to bed yesterday night. Also output voltage seems to perfectly fit my ARC Ref6 so the two of them are completely and madly in love.
And by the way this was all with cheap Chinese 274b recti and Psvane 300b UK design. After it gets a bit burned it tube rolling games will begin .

Secondly few days ago I also changed WireWorld Platinum Starlight USB cable with FTA (Final Touch Audio) Callisto USB cable and mamma mia this one completely destroyed WW - in fluidity, bass extension, decay, tone color,...and actually quite a few guys (all Lampi owners did the same thing - swapping their cables with this one).

So with this last few changes - one is still on the way (FTA RCA cable) i believe i will be set and quite for some time without any itches to change some gear (tube rolling excluded )

Cheers;
G

[vortrex]

Good to see Lampizator finally get rid of the magic marker and label maker labels on back. Looks really nice.

[Mike]

Congrats Golum! She’s a beauty.


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[Golum]

Thanks Mike! Yeah i really really love it!

[joeinid]

Wow, what a beautiful dac. Lampizator has come a long way! Enjoy.

[Randy Myers]

That is really amazing. It probably would be what I choose if I had my pick of any DAC on the planet!

[wisnon]

Chilling with Goran and his new, beautiful toy last night. Here is his report. I totally agree and call it the "Pacific Light"! Lukasz scores big again.

Yesterday night Norman was at my place and we had a small tube rolling session with my newly arrived GG2.5 (as we named it - and Norm can maybe explain this better).
Tubes we rolled were Elrog 300b, KR242, RK 300b and for the sake of fun National Union 45.
Firstly I have to mention, due to the fact that I was "suffering" with high output voltage with my previous GG overdriving my preamp, this thing is in the new DAC solved to the extent that with each different tube type output gain is almost the same, so for example inserting famously high gain 242 we still had to play it on almost the same level as for example 300b or 45 which for me is something I was looking for. Recti tube we used was RK 5u4g.

I can easily say that all tubes had their own magic and for none I can say that it sounded as crap in this particular GG, as for the opposite in several other GGs for example Elrog 300b sounded really really bad.

45s had a great mids and were shining in vocals while LFs were a bit wobbly and undefined. Overall extension in HF was not really top notch but still it as very pleasant tube for low volume late night listening sessions.

300b - Elrog splendid performer in all domains, huge soundstage, precise deep bass, extended HF, very nice layering and portraying the performers. RK - same comments as for Elrog but a bit more forward sounding tube and also maybe a bit tighter and extended LF.
242 - I was expecting miracles to be honest (despite the fact that in Norms GG it sounds nervous I would say due to gain mismatch, while in Chris GG and now Demo Pacific it sounds sublime) and was close to it but still not that far from both 300b. It is super dynamic, surgically precise, extended in both directions and creating a grand staging.

To sum up I can live with all 4 of them more than happily and it is just the matter of the mood, which one will plugged in, at the particular time of day/month. I can not avoid taking into account visual effect of all of those 4 as 242 and 45 look rather pathetic vs both RK and Elrog 300b and I take also this into account when plugging in the tubes as I personally enjoy looking at my gear and especially tubes.

and

I just checked at the spec sheet - each tube setting has it’s own output voltage and as Norm said 242 is at 270mV, 101d/PX4 at 300mV, 300b 290mV and 45 260mV so maybe this explains a bit. I specifically asked the guys to take care about this, as i had tooooo much gain with balanced version and with my Ref6 it was not really a bingo combo. Now this one seriously kicks a.s.
As Norm said adding the FTA USB cable instead of WW platinum starlight also massively influenced the end result.
Yes lets call it now Pacific Light.

[wisnon]

Just to add that if its Supermodel tubes Goran is after, then the champ will be the EML 300b and regular 45 (mesh both). Things of beauty, but not the best 300b and the Anniversary Globe 45 is better than the regular mesh in SQ. AG 45 mesh is still a nice looker, just a tad less fabulous in the looks dept.