The first sounds I heard from the Pacific DAC was a guitar lick from Mark Knopfler - and I knew I was in Lampizator heaven once again!
Today I has the pleasure of getting to RMAF in Denver for a few hours. Twice I visited the Lampizator room where they had the Pacific running with the newest SuperKomputer, a pair of Lampizator amps running to Salk Song 3 speakers. My system has included a Big 7 into Lejonklou amps to Vaughn speakers, so I'm somewhat familiar with the Lampizator sound.
The Pacific is just sublime and incredible. There's a full presence of sound and well balanced from the bass to the mid range to the highs. The sound is just clean and pure - you can hear everything in the music. Of course the source files make a difference as well.
I listened for about 45 minutes total. There were a few Dire Straits tracks, Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd, at least one Patricia Barber, and I don't know the rest. The Patricia Barber piece was unbelievable - her voice just came through with a beautiful surround of drums, bass, etc. Really amazing.
At times I felt like a spontaneous standing ovation would be appropriate or perhaps a bow respect for the beautiful sound coming forth.
Having said all that I wasn't the best set up for Lampizator, especially with the power and presence of the Pacific. Two years ago at RMAF, Lampizator was paired with PerfectStorm speakers by Vapor Audio, in a much large room with plenty of sound baffling. That setup seemed to hit a sweet spot and the speakers matched the Lampizator well. This year Lampizator was in much smaller room - and while the Pacific really put on a show, as much as I like Salk speaker, I don't think the Salks were a good match. So as good as the sound was, it sure seems like there is big headroom with a more suitable speaker and a better audio tailored room.
Some other details - it's very shiny and definitely a statement piece - a very different and very refined look for Lampizator. I think I heard Fred say it would start at 22,000 Euros and go up from there; also 16 Pacifics are already sold!
I would certainly love having a Pacific in my system, and still my Big 7 is a winner for me - and I'll be envious of those who jump up to this amazing DAC.
