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Thermionic DSD, LampizatOr Style | Confessions of a Part-Time Audiophile
Excerpt:
There is a bit of confusion over the various LampizatOr Levels, due in part to a lag in updating the website. Lukasz Fikus, Mr LampizatOr, is more often than not burning the midnight oil in a quest to perfect old products and introduce new ones from his boutique audio incubator. This means many, many, many, many late nights and a total surrender to his inner workaholic. He has been known to answer the phone past 1am while toiling away and he normally starts his day early.
My understanding of the versions from discussions with Lukasz is that they match the level of sophistication of parts, with quality climbing as you go up the levels. Level 1 and 2 are now defunct (discontinued); Level 3 (L3) represents the value play as it has the same circuit DNA as all the higher levels. However, L3 is a fixed product with no variations as it’s “mass produced”, that is, at least as much as a boutique hand-made assembly setup will allow. End-user customization is possible from L4 and up. Think Russian/generic parts vs more expensive esoteric audiophile-grade parts. Keep in mind that all these Levels are referring to the PCM DAC, which is the foundation of the Lampi brand.
L5 is a dual mono powered version of L4 in 2 identically-sized L4 boxes (power supply is separate), and perhaps a couple of stock parts are more upscale than in L4. L5 also gives the ability to include every conceivable option as space is not limited as it is in the single-box L4, including: a volume w/remote control, multiple inputs, multiple outputs, balanced outputs, internal PSU to power accessories like a SB receiver or any other 12v low amperage type device like a DSPeaker Dual Core bass corrector unit. L6 is a single chassis, single input/single output, exposed tube “ultimate” PCM DAC, while the Big6 is similar but housed in the much deeper (larger) GM70 amplifier chassis. The Big6 has the space to add extra options that the L6 cannot accommodate, while still attempting to be the “ultimate” implementation. Perhaps more levels will be dreamt up as developments continue.
How does all this relate to DSD, you may be wondering by now? Well, DSD is a whole ‘nother animal, just as 8-track is different to cassette and to “Reel to Reel”, though all 3 depend on magnetic plastic tape to store musical info. DSD is a 1-bit 2.8mhz “digital” format (henceforth referred to as DSD64), with variations in multiple scales climbing higher in frequency, ex DSD128=2xDSD= 1-bit 5.6mhz and so on as you scale the frequency mountain. My understanding is that the higher rate DSD sub-formats push the ultrasonic noise of the format further away from the audible frequency spectrum. The delta-sigma technology here is somewhat akin to Pulse Width (Density) Modulation, as opposed to the more popular Pulse Code modulation (PCM), so it could be thought of as part-analog and part-digital. DSD64 is the format used by Sony in the SACD disc format and one peculiarity of it is that no DAC chip decoding is actually needed. It will play back distorted music if run straight through to speakers, unlike PCM, which will produce hash. PCM does require decoding though resistor ladder arrays or a DAC chip (multi-bit or delta-sigma).
Excerpt:
There is a bit of confusion over the various LampizatOr Levels, due in part to a lag in updating the website. Lukasz Fikus, Mr LampizatOr, is more often than not burning the midnight oil in a quest to perfect old products and introduce new ones from his boutique audio incubator. This means many, many, many, many late nights and a total surrender to his inner workaholic. He has been known to answer the phone past 1am while toiling away and he normally starts his day early.
My understanding of the versions from discussions with Lukasz is that they match the level of sophistication of parts, with quality climbing as you go up the levels. Level 1 and 2 are now defunct (discontinued); Level 3 (L3) represents the value play as it has the same circuit DNA as all the higher levels. However, L3 is a fixed product with no variations as it’s “mass produced”, that is, at least as much as a boutique hand-made assembly setup will allow. End-user customization is possible from L4 and up. Think Russian/generic parts vs more expensive esoteric audiophile-grade parts. Keep in mind that all these Levels are referring to the PCM DAC, which is the foundation of the Lampi brand.
L5 is a dual mono powered version of L4 in 2 identically-sized L4 boxes (power supply is separate), and perhaps a couple of stock parts are more upscale than in L4. L5 also gives the ability to include every conceivable option as space is not limited as it is in the single-box L4, including: a volume w/remote control, multiple inputs, multiple outputs, balanced outputs, internal PSU to power accessories like a SB receiver or any other 12v low amperage type device like a DSPeaker Dual Core bass corrector unit. L6 is a single chassis, single input/single output, exposed tube “ultimate” PCM DAC, while the Big6 is similar but housed in the much deeper (larger) GM70 amplifier chassis. The Big6 has the space to add extra options that the L6 cannot accommodate, while still attempting to be the “ultimate” implementation. Perhaps more levels will be dreamt up as developments continue.
How does all this relate to DSD, you may be wondering by now? Well, DSD is a whole ‘nother animal, just as 8-track is different to cassette and to “Reel to Reel”, though all 3 depend on magnetic plastic tape to store musical info. DSD is a 1-bit 2.8mhz “digital” format (henceforth referred to as DSD64), with variations in multiple scales climbing higher in frequency, ex DSD128=2xDSD= 1-bit 5.6mhz and so on as you scale the frequency mountain. My understanding is that the higher rate DSD sub-formats push the ultrasonic noise of the format further away from the audible frequency spectrum. The delta-sigma technology here is somewhat akin to Pulse Width (Density) Modulation, as opposed to the more popular Pulse Code modulation (PCM), so it could be thought of as part-analog and part-digital. DSD64 is the format used by Sony in the SACD disc format and one peculiarity of it is that no DAC chip decoding is actually needed. It will play back distorted music if run straight through to speakers, unlike PCM, which will produce hash. PCM does require decoding though resistor ladder arrays or a DAC chip (multi-bit or delta-sigma).