- Thread Author
- #1
Mike please put at first post if you can please.
Thanks al d
My Pacific Voyage
by Al Dattolo
Intro:
As many of you may know from my posts, I have been a Lampizator fan for several years and own a couple of their DACs. I have been enthusiastic about this small company and it unique offerings for some time and the announcement of the Pacific piqued my interest deeply.
About 3 weeks ago I got an offer I couldn’t refuse when my friend, Fred A., who happens to be the North American Distributor of LampizatOr, offered to loan me his personal Pacific while his home was being renovated. I quickly accepted the offer and setup a day to meet up and collect it.
The Pacific came in a large heavily reinforced transport case, similar to the kind used for roadies in shows. Inside it was heavily padded. Shiny? Yes. Bling? Yes-- but not over the top. It's gold finish is elegant without being over the top gaudy. The Riccardo Kron tubes in their custom
boxes are another “perfect 10" in my book as well. For me these choices seem right for a flagship product.
Upon getting the unit placed it in my rack I let it warm up for two hours with the Riccardo Kron edition 300b and 5u4G tubes it came with.
Background:
Before diving straight into my review, I want to say a little about myself. I have spent the better part of my life pursuing high end audio. As a teenager I built my first stereo from parts bought from a local audio store called “Lafayette Electronics”.
Does that name sound familiar? It should--they were "da bomb" many, many years ago. I remember fondly those days as I had speakers, headphones even a customized car stereo.
In those days there were three ways to play audio: vinyl and tape and of course a radio. In my view it's well merited that to this day both vinyl and tape remain the pinnacle of high end audio reproduction .
My present system is made up of collection of both new and old components. Some say the equipment of the past was better than the present in many aspects and that more often than not newer is not better, and I believe there is merit to this thinking... When solid state came out I was there
and when the shiny discs came out I was there too. Back then I had all (built by me) David Hafler stuff. Amps , preamp , equalizer too.
What I noticed back then was a heightened level of detail relative to what I’d experienced before. Sonically speaking, I’ve always been somewhat of a detail junkie and, as my equipment improved over time, complexities and trade off associated with the chase became apparent.
As a final introductory note: Honesty isn’t always welcome in forum posts, and I do, on occasion, catch hell for it. I never post about things I have not tried or do not understand, unless I am attempting to learn something for myself.
My current configuration is as follows:
Speakers - Infinity IRS V completely revamped by me.
New magnets , wires , new cross over (now external) designed and voiced by Arnie Nudel himself (what could be better?) Also, a new balanced active cross over also by Arnie and along with a new PSU . All work was done by ps audio. I also commissioned a analog phase shifter/adjuster for the woofer towers .
Amplification is a heavily modified Aragon 4004 Mkii with custom power supply scheme.
Preamplifier duties are handled though the analog inputs by my MSB Platinum+ 4
DACS : MSB Platinum plus 4 new USB input, LampizatOr Big 7 (2017 vintage), a custom
LampizatOr Golden Gate Headdac with super clocks , R2R Pcm384/DSD256 , chipless DSD512. It was made to be neutral for headphones and has a driver tube with a bypass switch . It's SE with many tube rolling options .
Source - My server is a self built dual PC setup. My player PC hosts Roon while the computer interfacing with the DAC hosts HQ Player. Both computers use Windows SERVER 2016, Audiophile Optimizer, a full size Gamer Motherboard with 4 feed digital controlled cpu voltage reg with a 3.5ghz Xeon cpu . This is for both player PC and dac PC. A custom NAS (actually a storage area network -SAN) with a full size main board 6 core cpu . 4 spinning drives holding about 20TB of music. 4 external LPS power supplies are used for all and many voltage bus feeds for all drives and on board devices. Enterprise grade LAN cards and LPS. Network switch on its own separate network.
Review:
I believe the servers I use allow me to extract the very best a DAC is capable of, although this can be a double edged sword at times. It leaves nowhere to hide for the limit of the dac's capability: noise floor, imaging, micro and macro details. and finally dynamics. Upon listening to the Pacific for the first time in my system, it showed me much more details than I normally have in my system and seems not to have a sound of its own. What this means is each track has its own sound. A good friend explained that is what Ultra Hi-End audio reproduction should be. This dac has this in spades! As a result of this, my personal reference tracks were like brand new to me, despite hearing them hundreds of times. The resolution I am describing is more complex than just more sounds. The sound I have been experiencing gives me whole new layers in playback. I can hear the vocals slightly change in sound level even the piano keys intensity is there. To say the Pacific was better than my own reference HeadDac is an oversimplification, to really describe it I needed many hours to get into words what's better.
From the Moment I turned the Pacific on it was clear this was levels above what I had ever had in my system. In fact, even the very best, cost-no-object, DACs in world class systems, don't have the Pacific’s level of refinement. Let's define refinement on my terms, it means cleaner sounds, more bloom around the notes or vocals, yet not pointed nor thin. Notes or vocal decay is what attaches me to the music and as you get hyper details, it's usually thinner by nature. The gift of refinement is to have both details presented along with the note decay and sustain that makes allows a piece to retain it’s weight . The sound this dac gives is the most detailed I have experienced, yet it truly retains the decay! Not even some very expensive dacs I have heard give this level of refinement. Noise floor: this is of the most important in any ultra high end system. Silence is what we want.
My system is fed from a 10kw balanced isolation transformer. It is completely isolated in the ground plain of my home or power grid . This gives my setup a base noise floor much lower than the use of typical room power. Most don't use or understand the vast inportance of this power distribution system . It's how I am able to hear the musical fine details that I speak of. While the Pacific will take most any setup to the next level of sound, in my own system I hear just how limitless this DAC’s noise floor is. To hear the vocalist breathe and form their next word makes me feel I am at the mic feed level. No dac I have had or heard gives this kind of "you are there" feel. To hear the slightest change in inflection of a piano while singing is what ultra hi end is about layers that seem so separate yet from the same song is almost unnerving to me. I have told others that any horn or string Instrument has a rise and fall of each note. On a saxophone or horn I call it a “croak”. It is the start of a note as blown onto the reed. Smearing of this is typical in lesser dacs as they can't seem to get or hold this kind of detail. Part of this may be related to their reproduction of decay–lesser DACs, even backed by the best of servers, do not and cannot present this no matter what I do.
I don't build servers commercially, rather it is a labor of love for me and I have restlessly sought to extract additional levels of refinement in them. In doing so I know what makes a dac sound great, but the dac can only play at its own inherent limit. The Pacific dac gives me the most detailed note decay, yet still as fast I have ever had in my system. What is needed in any ultra high end system is just a handful of parameters: clarity, fast dynamics, micro and macro details (note decay resides in these two) and low noise floor . Seems like a small order, no? Notice a house sound is not included in the list! No dac should have house sound but most do and in the past even Lampizator was guilty of this as well. The Pacific, however, distinguishes itself in that it does not. Though difficult to describe, it is simple to appreciate once you it in a system that can give you this.
To be continued with next installment very soon
Thanks al d
My Pacific Voyage
by Al Dattolo
Intro:
As many of you may know from my posts, I have been a Lampizator fan for several years and own a couple of their DACs. I have been enthusiastic about this small company and it unique offerings for some time and the announcement of the Pacific piqued my interest deeply.
About 3 weeks ago I got an offer I couldn’t refuse when my friend, Fred A., who happens to be the North American Distributor of LampizatOr, offered to loan me his personal Pacific while his home was being renovated. I quickly accepted the offer and setup a day to meet up and collect it.
The Pacific came in a large heavily reinforced transport case, similar to the kind used for roadies in shows. Inside it was heavily padded. Shiny? Yes. Bling? Yes-- but not over the top. It's gold finish is elegant without being over the top gaudy. The Riccardo Kron tubes in their custom
boxes are another “perfect 10" in my book as well. For me these choices seem right for a flagship product.
Upon getting the unit placed it in my rack I let it warm up for two hours with the Riccardo Kron edition 300b and 5u4G tubes it came with.
Background:
Before diving straight into my review, I want to say a little about myself. I have spent the better part of my life pursuing high end audio. As a teenager I built my first stereo from parts bought from a local audio store called “Lafayette Electronics”.
Does that name sound familiar? It should--they were "da bomb" many, many years ago. I remember fondly those days as I had speakers, headphones even a customized car stereo.
In those days there were three ways to play audio: vinyl and tape and of course a radio. In my view it's well merited that to this day both vinyl and tape remain the pinnacle of high end audio reproduction .
My present system is made up of collection of both new and old components. Some say the equipment of the past was better than the present in many aspects and that more often than not newer is not better, and I believe there is merit to this thinking... When solid state came out I was there
and when the shiny discs came out I was there too. Back then I had all (built by me) David Hafler stuff. Amps , preamp , equalizer too.
What I noticed back then was a heightened level of detail relative to what I’d experienced before. Sonically speaking, I’ve always been somewhat of a detail junkie and, as my equipment improved over time, complexities and trade off associated with the chase became apparent.
As a final introductory note: Honesty isn’t always welcome in forum posts, and I do, on occasion, catch hell for it. I never post about things I have not tried or do not understand, unless I am attempting to learn something for myself.
My current configuration is as follows:
Speakers - Infinity IRS V completely revamped by me.
New magnets , wires , new cross over (now external) designed and voiced by Arnie Nudel himself (what could be better?) Also, a new balanced active cross over also by Arnie and along with a new PSU . All work was done by ps audio. I also commissioned a analog phase shifter/adjuster for the woofer towers .
Amplification is a heavily modified Aragon 4004 Mkii with custom power supply scheme.
Preamplifier duties are handled though the analog inputs by my MSB Platinum+ 4
DACS : MSB Platinum plus 4 new USB input, LampizatOr Big 7 (2017 vintage), a custom
LampizatOr Golden Gate Headdac with super clocks , R2R Pcm384/DSD256 , chipless DSD512. It was made to be neutral for headphones and has a driver tube with a bypass switch . It's SE with many tube rolling options .
Source - My server is a self built dual PC setup. My player PC hosts Roon while the computer interfacing with the DAC hosts HQ Player. Both computers use Windows SERVER 2016, Audiophile Optimizer, a full size Gamer Motherboard with 4 feed digital controlled cpu voltage reg with a 3.5ghz Xeon cpu . This is for both player PC and dac PC. A custom NAS (actually a storage area network -SAN) with a full size main board 6 core cpu . 4 spinning drives holding about 20TB of music. 4 external LPS power supplies are used for all and many voltage bus feeds for all drives and on board devices. Enterprise grade LAN cards and LPS. Network switch on its own separate network.
Review:
I believe the servers I use allow me to extract the very best a DAC is capable of, although this can be a double edged sword at times. It leaves nowhere to hide for the limit of the dac's capability: noise floor, imaging, micro and macro details. and finally dynamics. Upon listening to the Pacific for the first time in my system, it showed me much more details than I normally have in my system and seems not to have a sound of its own. What this means is each track has its own sound. A good friend explained that is what Ultra Hi-End audio reproduction should be. This dac has this in spades! As a result of this, my personal reference tracks were like brand new to me, despite hearing them hundreds of times. The resolution I am describing is more complex than just more sounds. The sound I have been experiencing gives me whole new layers in playback. I can hear the vocals slightly change in sound level even the piano keys intensity is there. To say the Pacific was better than my own reference HeadDac is an oversimplification, to really describe it I needed many hours to get into words what's better.
From the Moment I turned the Pacific on it was clear this was levels above what I had ever had in my system. In fact, even the very best, cost-no-object, DACs in world class systems, don't have the Pacific’s level of refinement. Let's define refinement on my terms, it means cleaner sounds, more bloom around the notes or vocals, yet not pointed nor thin. Notes or vocal decay is what attaches me to the music and as you get hyper details, it's usually thinner by nature. The gift of refinement is to have both details presented along with the note decay and sustain that makes allows a piece to retain it’s weight . The sound this dac gives is the most detailed I have experienced, yet it truly retains the decay! Not even some very expensive dacs I have heard give this level of refinement. Noise floor: this is of the most important in any ultra high end system. Silence is what we want.
My system is fed from a 10kw balanced isolation transformer. It is completely isolated in the ground plain of my home or power grid . This gives my setup a base noise floor much lower than the use of typical room power. Most don't use or understand the vast inportance of this power distribution system . It's how I am able to hear the musical fine details that I speak of. While the Pacific will take most any setup to the next level of sound, in my own system I hear just how limitless this DAC’s noise floor is. To hear the vocalist breathe and form their next word makes me feel I am at the mic feed level. No dac I have had or heard gives this kind of "you are there" feel. To hear the slightest change in inflection of a piano while singing is what ultra hi end is about layers that seem so separate yet from the same song is almost unnerving to me. I have told others that any horn or string Instrument has a rise and fall of each note. On a saxophone or horn I call it a “croak”. It is the start of a note as blown onto the reed. Smearing of this is typical in lesser dacs as they can't seem to get or hold this kind of detail. Part of this may be related to their reproduction of decay–lesser DACs, even backed by the best of servers, do not and cannot present this no matter what I do.
I don't build servers commercially, rather it is a labor of love for me and I have restlessly sought to extract additional levels of refinement in them. In doing so I know what makes a dac sound great, but the dac can only play at its own inherent limit. The Pacific dac gives me the most detailed note decay, yet still as fast I have ever had in my system. What is needed in any ultra high end system is just a handful of parameters: clarity, fast dynamics, micro and macro details (note decay resides in these two) and low noise floor . Seems like a small order, no? Notice a house sound is not included in the list! No dac should have house sound but most do and in the past even Lampizator was guilty of this as well. The Pacific, however, distinguishes itself in that it does not. Though difficult to describe, it is simple to appreciate once you it in a system that can give you this.
To be continued with next installment very soon
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