Lampizator Komputer Changes

[Alpinist]

Hi everyone my first post on this forum! I have a Berkeley Reference Dac connected to my somewhat antiquated Mark Levinson 31.5 CD transport. While the sound I am getting is an improvement on my previous ML360s dac there is still a touch of hardness to the sound even through my Magico S7 speakers (which are wonderful by the way). I'm beginning to wonder whether it is time for me to come out of my cave and embrace the world of computer audio! Ive held back mainly because of doubt about whether a server can outperform a good CD transport. I did see Elberoth's musings on this subject a while back which made sense to me but I have never actually listened to a server in my home set up. If I take the plunge do you think something like an Aurender N10 connected direct to the BAD via AES/EBU would provide better sound quality than say a Lampi Komputer connected via a USB converter (eg Berkeley Alpha which I dont have)? From what Ive read elsewhere the BAD works best via a direct AES/EBU connection so that would seem to point to Baetis and Aurender. However the Lampi looks interesting although if it does offer AES/EBU does anyone know how good this is compared to Aurender/Baetis? I will mainly be ripping CDs and perhaps downloading the odd high resolution files, DSD is not important to me and Ive yet to try the streamer services (Tidal et al). Many thanks!

Welcome to Audioshark and congrats on the Magico S7's! They are terrific speakers. I heard them at Overture Audio.

According to Mike, who owns both the Aurender N10 and Berkeley Reference DAC, the AES/EBU connection between the two is the way to go and produces wonderful sound that would be very hard to beat. By doing this, you will bypass all the shortcomings of the USB connection, although the Berkeley Alpha USB is one of the best implementations. Perhaps Mike will chime in about it.

Best,
Ken

 

[Mike]

Hi everyone my first post on this forum! I have a Berkeley Reference Dac connected to my somewhat antiquated Mark Levinson 31.5 CD transport. While the sound I am getting is an improvement on my previous ML360s dac there is still a touch of hardness to the sound even through my Magico S7 speakers (which are wonderful by the way). I'm beginning to wonder whether it is time for me to come out of my cave and embrace the world of computer audio! Ive held back mainly because of doubt about whether a server can outperform a good CD transport. I did see Elberoth's musings on this subject a while back which made sense to me but I have never actually listened to a server in my home set up. If I take the plunge do you think something like an Aurender N10 connected direct to the BAD via AES/EBU would provide better sound quality than say a Lampi Komputer connected via a USB converter (eg Berkeley Alpha which I dont have)? From what Ive read elsewhere the BAD works best via a direct AES/EBU connection so that would seem to point to Baetis and Aurender. However the Lampi looks interesting although if it does offer AES/EBU does anyone know how good this is compared to Aurender/Baetis? I will mainly be ripping CDs and perhaps downloading the odd high resolution files, DSD is not important to me and Ive yet to try the streamer services (Tidal et al). Many thanks!

Welcome!

I find the Aurender N10 + Berkeley Alpha USB to be an absolute wonderful pairing. They both work well together because, IMO, both strive for the lowest noise floor. Music just comes out of the blackest backgrounds.

As for the AES/EBU vs Alpha USB, I would say you need to try it both ways if possible. Berkeley believes the best performance is achieved using the Alpha USB and if I'm not mistaken, so did Robert Harley in his review.

 

[Alpinist]

Welcome!

I find the Aurender N10 + Berkeley Alpha USB to be an absolute wonderful pairing. They both work well together because, IMO, both strive for the lowest noise floor. Music just comes out of the blackest backgrounds.

As for the AES/EBU vs Alpha USB, I would say you need to try it both ways if possible. Berkeley believes the best performance is achieved using the Alpha USB and if I'm not mistaken, so did Robert Harley in his review.

Hi Mike,

I hope you had a great cruise. Forgetting Berkeley's company line for a moment, I guess the question is, what do you believe?? I'd take your opinion over Harley's any day of the week.

Best,
Ken

 

[Mike]

Hi Mike,

I hope you had a great cruise. Forgetting Berkeley's company line for a moment, I guess the question is, what do you believe?? I'd take your opinion over Harley's any day of the week.

Best,
Ken

My experience was that, in my system, the AES/EBU from the N10 to the Ref DAC sounded better - but it's close. Those who have A/B with me, agreed. But that could be just with my system and just with the Aurender N10. When I loaned my N10 out for demo a few weeks back, I used my MacBook Pro (why people like JRiver is beyond me), and I was glad to have the Berk Alpha USB.

Now here's a twist for you - when I tried the Lumin U1 with the Berkeley Ref DAC, I preferred it with the Alpha USB in the mix. That being said, the U1 is breaking in and needs more time before a conclusive A:B can be conducted.

 

[Mike]

Let's get back to talking about the Lampi Komputer!!

Looking forward to seeing it and hearing it at Axpona.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stsxerses]

Thanks guys. Mike have you compared the Lampi Komputer or CAPS equivalent to the Aurender? And on a tangential note has anyone compared the Aurender W20 to the N10? Ive read some lukewarm reviews of the W20 with some pointing to the use of a switching power supply which I understand the N10 does not have. I also see that there are a number of W20's on the used market (advertised as mint) for similar money to the N10.
If Elberoth gets to see these posts I would be interested in his thoughts on the Lampi Komputer in particular the quality of its AES/EBU output (given my BAD does not offer USB) and how it compares with Aurender. Really appreciate everyone here taking the time to provide me with their insights - I'm glad I finally got round to joining this great forum!
Steve

 

[Mike]

Steve - unless I'm mistaken, the Lampi Komputer is making its debut at Axpona in two weeks. It's too new. I'm a big N10/U1 fan, but keen to hear the Komputer. As for W20 vs N10, I believe LeRoy did a direct comparison and said he felt the W20 was better.

 

[Odyssey]

As for W20 vs N10, I believe LeRoy did a direct comparison and said he felt the W20 was better.

I did have the N10 in my system at the same time as the W20 on home demo. I ran both through the Berkeley Ref DAC and the Soulution 560 DAC. The W20 did sound better a matter of degrees. But in my mind the reason to spend the extra money on the W20 would be for one of two reasons (a) if you want to have 12T of internal storage vs 4T for the N10. Or (b) if you wanted something other than USB to carry the higher resolution signal.

The W20 has dual wire AES\EBU to support native DSD to those DAC's that support dual wire. Think DCS. I've heard it said that the W20 was designed with the DCS in mind. Some feel that the dual wire AES/EBU connection is superior to USB for DSD.

The W20 also has superior build quality. Certain circuits and functions are well engineered and isolated from each other.

 

[stsxerses]

Thanks both. Le Roy- what did you think of the Aurender compared to your existing digital set up? Im hoping to be able to check out the Lampi Komputer at the Munich high end show next month. All the best

 

[Odyssey]

Thanks both. Le Roy- what did you think of the Aurender compared to your existing digital set up? Im hoping to be able to check out the Lampi Komputer at the Munich high end show next month. All the best

For me it is not just about SQ. It is also Graphic User Interface (GUI). I think the GUI of the Lumin is better by some measure. If you close you iPad or hit the home button to do something else with the iPad and come back to the Lumin app you are right where you left off.

Not true at the time I was using the Aurender. You would have to go thru several button pushes (if you could remember) to get back to where you left off. Although the Aurender does save your playlist or queue. I think that Aurender is working on this. At the time I demo'd the Aurender you could not scrub forward the music using DSD or Tidal but I'm told they are working on that as well. You can scrub in all the instances I tried with the Lumin.

I ended up with the Lumin U1 and QNAP 451 NAS with Raid array. I'm not keen on onboard HDD because all hard drives will fail at some point.

I was extremely surprised by the SQ of the Lumin S1. I probably have went with the S1 if I didn't have DAC-switch-out-itis.

 

[stsxerses]

Thanks Le Roy. I will try to check out the Lumin. Out of interest for redbook do you prefer your server set up to the Soulution 541 (I own a Soulution 520/711 myself but never tried the Soulution 541 - Im trying to convince myself it is time to embrace a server and ditch the cd transport!)

 

[Odyssey]

Thanks Le Roy. I will try to check out the Lumin. Out of interest for redbook do you prefer your server set up to the Soulution 541 (I own a Soulution 520/711 myself but never tried the Soulution 541 - Im trying to convince myself it is time to embrace a server and ditch the cd transport!)

The soulution 541 has the 560 DAC board built into it. I have the Network streamer option for both of my units. It took me a while to figure it out but I now have the QNAP 451+ streaming music directly to the Ethernet connection of the 541 via JRiver. It is clearly superior to the USB connection by not a slim margin. It is the way that I play all of my music now save for the Lampi which is either USB or AES/EBU. But can't feed anything above PCM thru the AES/EBU connection which is a limitation of AES. So it's USB with the Lampi unless I want to convert DSD to PCM on the fly. Which I don't.

The spinner function of the 541 is a "nice to have" with the CD collection but is less than 5% of my listening venue with a music crammed NAS.

 

[Alpinist]

The soulution 541 has the 560 DAC board built into it. I have the Network streamer option for both of my units. It took me a while to figure it out but I now have the QNAP 451+ streaming music directly to the Ethernet connection of the 541 via JRiver. It is clearly superior to the USB connection by not a slim margin. It is the way that I play all of my music now save for the Lampi which is either USB or AES/EBU. But can't feed anything above PCM thru the AES/EBU connection which is a limitation of AES. So it's USB with the Lampi unless I want to convert DSD to PCM on the fly. Which I don't.

The spinner function of the 541 is a "nice to have" with the CD collection but is less than 5% of my listening venue with a music crammed NAS.

Hi Le Roy,

I hope all is well with you. Is JRiver running on the Uptone modified Mac Mini or somewhere else?

Best,
Ken

 

[Odyssey]

Hi Le Roy,

I hope all is well with you. Is JRiver running on the Uptone modified Mac Mini or somewhere else?

Best,
Ken

Hi Ken, I checked with my computer audio guru Ari Margolis at GoldenEarDigital.com who combed my NAS and has tutored me on JRiver.

With my setup JRiver is acting as the "traffic cop" and routing and directing the music file from the QNAP 451+ NAS to the Ethernet connection of the Soulution 541 Network streamer. I am very happy with the SQ in this setup.

 

[Alpinist]

Hi Ken, I checked with my computer audio guru Ari Margolis at GoldenEarDigital.com who combed my NAS and has tutored me on JRiver.

With my setup JRiver is acting as the "traffic cop" and routing and directing the music file from the QNAP 451+ NAS to the Ethernet connection of the Soulution 541 Network streamer. I am very happy with the SQ in this setup.

Hi Le Roy,

That's extremely interesting. And from what I remembered, you love the sound quality, right?

Best,
Ken

 

[Odyssey]

Hi Le Roy,

That's extremely interesting. And from what I remembered, you love the sound quality, right?

Best,
Ken

The SQ to the Network connection is a real step up over the USB connection to the soulution 541/560 DAC.

But the Lampi Big 7 SE is the girl with the skirt above the knees right now. Esp with DSD.

 

[Elberoth]

The SQ to the Network connection is a real step up over the USB connection to the soulution 541/560 DAC.

But the Lampi Big 7 SE is the girl with the skirt above the knees right now. Esp with DSD.

Did you try controlling it from an app (as UPNP Renederer), instead of Jriver ? I know that a friend of mine that has the 560 right now, has a problem in making it running.

Most UPNP renderers can be run with the server software running on a NAS (QNAP or Synology) and a control point app running from iPad. It makes things much easier (no PC necessary).

 

[Odyssey]

Did you try controlling it from an app (as UPNP Renederer), instead of Jriver ? I know that a friend of mine that has the 560 right now, has a problem in making it running.

Most UPNP renderers can be run with the server software running on a NAS (QNAP or Synology) and a control point app running from iPad. It makes things much easier (no PC necessary).

I use JRemote on my IPad to send music from the NAS to the Network connection on the 541/560. I have tried Kinsky which is an open source UPnP control point and I have also used the PlugPlayer app on the iPad. They are quite bare bones in their GUI. The GUI is part of the experience for me.

I would rate Aurender/Lumin an 8/9 and I would give Kinsky/Plugplayer a 3/4 on a scale of 1-10 for usability and features of what you can do with the GUI. I don't hear any substantial SQ differences using Kinsky or Plugplayer vs the JRemote to my ears in my listening room. Building smartlists and playlists, searching for albums by genre or file type is something that I enjoy doing and Kinsky/Plugplayer are feature limited in my experience.

If an enhanced version of Kinsky or Plugplayer came out I would be glad to try it out. I have heard that Kinsky is bullet proof from that the standpoint that it doesn't freeze, fail or shut down at random.

 

[Elberoth]

The problem with Kinsky he is experiencing, is that the player stops after each track from the playlist. You need to hit play over and over again to make it play the next track.

He had no such a problems with other UPNP renderers he tried.

I will tell him to try the plugplayer.

 

[Odyssey]

The problem with Kinsky he is experiencing, is that the player stops after each track from the playlist. You need to hit play over and over again to make it play the next track.

He had no such a problems with other UPNP renderers he tried.

I will tell him to try the plugplayer.

Both the Kinsky and Plugplayer worked for me. Building playlists was cumbersome. Both have limited functionality. I don't think that there have been any updates to Kinsky for quite some time. Both are quite spartan.