Room Is something I will get to hopefully in 2019. I’ve got into this new home and have had to pump money in it so until that’s finally done then The room will
have to wait.
Im glad some of you finally got to see some of the gear I’ve been talking about for the past few years. Hopefully this gave me a sense of more “credibility” in front of your eyes about owning everything I’ve talked about. Everything you see on those pics is equipment I can talk about and give you my honest opinion on. Yes there’s more equipment that I also have pictures of which I will hopefully add at some point. I wanted to just share a little more of me with you all before the end of the year. Cheers !
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Awesome guys. I appreciate the wealth of information I’m getting here. I will certainly be looking into each of your responses once I have the time to sit down and do more research based on your suggestions.
For now, the main focus (aside from my primary focus which is amplifiers) is to bring my room a little more “closer” to optimal sound. Of course, it won’t ever be what a perfectly shaped room with carpet would be and I understand that.
I appreciate those you who keep contributing with real advice and who are able to keep this thread going.
Also, Part of my new 2019 approach will be to develop thicker skin (as mentioned above) and to just totally ignore those with negative criticism and who don’t add anything of value here anymore. Silence is best practice in order to avoid any issues. If you see me no longer responding to you on here then either I haven’t gotten around to it or I’m doing what I am stating above.
Thank you again ! |
You all can thank the wife. She added an area rug today. Look at the last picture I just added to my virtual system.
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Ok so while we wait for the musical fidelity titan to arrive next month, those of you who have experience with acoustic treatments, go ahead and look at the last picture of my room. I’m open to hearing what you would add to the walls, where on the wall and where do you recommend I purchase it. I keep hearing I need bass traps before anything right in the corners behind the Neoliths. One thing I wanted to add is that I’m not going to take down the tv (my daughter watches tv there and so do we) since I know some will say to remove the tv. I’ve also read somewhere that adding a blanket over the tv when listening or some sort of deflection is all a waste of time because the tv hardly interacts with the speakers since it’s almoar between the speakers and about 5 feet behind the speakers. Again, I’m not an expert but that’s what I’ve read so far. Please advise and see what we can do with my room. |
@bigddesign do you have any pictures where I can visualize this ? |
@spinaker
I agree with you. I don’t exactly love them but when I moved into this house, I needed something to put my gear on. I just ended up buying those on the fly locally from a salamander dealer who had them available. That’s pretty much how I ended up with them. Trust me, the wife also tells me the same thing you’re echoing here. For now they will stay until I address some of my acoustic issues.
See, I knew posting pics of my gear/room would open a can of worms but I am fine with it. I’ll take the good with the bad then make the best of it.
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sure. i will try to reach out to them next month to see what they suggest.
i appreciate the feedback man. |
Did you do also do it this way to treat your room?
@ricred1
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Perfect. I Will have to reach out to them then.
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Techno,
i actually got the block audios for $1,000. They shipped them to me for free and I did not pay upfront either. They almost paid my plane ticket too to come to the factory and wanted me to hook them up with deals as well. Yes they gave me a $64,000 dollar discount on the $65,000 retail Monos. They were actually cheaper than emotiva amplifiers. Isn’t that cool ? Why don’t you start your own thread so you can also reap on the benefits of getting stuff for 99% off discount? I mean you do have Luxman and McIntosh so you can always start there. Maybe Luxman offers you a mono 900u and matching preamp for 99% off retail as well if you get your thread going? I believe you can email them directly. Everything I have displayed on my pictures was free. I am a mastermind of tricking manufacturers into giving me stuff for free so I can talk about it because I have the same following as LeBron James does in basketball or tiger woods in golf. Everyone who follows my thread is loaded with money so manufacturers can’t even keep inventory or deal with the massive amount of traction i am creating for them. They actually told me to slow down my thread for the holidays because they didn’t have enough manpower through the holidays to keep up with the demand I’m creating for them. It’s very simple to sell the stuff I own. Would you believe Me if I told you that it is easy to sell a pair of neoltihs which is why I had to get them? Yea a lot of people got the money needed to buy them under their mattress. It’s super simple :) |
Happy new year @mrdecibel |
So it appears that the Rowland 925s will go head to head against the block audios in February (date to be determined). The goal is to have both at once and let the showdown begin. My good friend David will ship me his 925s and then I’ll ship my block audios and 925s to him so that he can also do his own shootout with mágico and ref10 which he also owns.
Gryphon will also make an appearance in my room in 2019. Mark my words that I will Finally get my hands on one of their amps.
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Has anyone here heard the Lamm 1.2 Monos? Those amps have always caught my attention because I’ve noticed that they use tubes and output class a. I’m wondering how they sound. |
Interesting guido. I might venture into 535s after I do a shootout between the blocks and the 925s.
I remember the 925s being very smooth and incredibly engaging. I actually remember them sounding like Luxman 900u when I used the 900u preamp with them. I was very very shocked to say the least. That 900u pre and 925s was indeed impressive. |
I want to ask each and everyone of you one question: what is the best amplifier you’ve heard or owned and why? Let me hear your thoughts. This should be interesting. |
Awesome post. I like the way you explained what you liked and disliked. This is helpful to me so I have an idea of what to expect in the event that I end up buying them
@tjassoc
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Interesting guys.... keep them coming. I want to see what are your preferences.
Greyhound, I’m not surprised with your pick. You have a soft spot for tubes and so do I. I can’t deny it. |
Interesting read greyhound. Appreciate you sharing that with us.
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Viber,
so the treble of the block audios really doesn’t exist. What I mean is that they just pass the signal from the preamp. They have no real sound of their own other than may be they have more oomph than most amps I’ve owned. The Plinius does have its own sound. It delivers awesome sound but if I were to compare to the blocks then you’d instantly hear that the bass and mids aren’t at the level of the block audio. The Plinius isn’t transparent just like pass labs isn’t either. Block audio is more transparent and it does something that I never shared with you all before; it manages to pass the “feeling” and emotion of the music better than any amp I’ve heard. It literally puts you in the mood of the music you’re listening to. I actually caught myself a few times feeling this phenomenon and then I scratched my head thinking why my mood had changed all of a sudden.
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Jafant,
happy new year to you.
Luxman d08u: sweetness, beautiful engaging sound. You can sit down for hours listening to it.
Esoteric k1: more transparent, less forgiving of the source. Huge soundstage, articulate bass with lots of tight punch.
Luxman d08u is excellent if your sources are decent. For example, I have my oled tv going out optical into the dac so I can watch sports or movies through my speakers occasionally and the Luxman was better than the esoteric. It gave more sparkle and sweetness. The esoteric sounded less detailed with my tv feeding signal to it. It pretty much told me “this is what your tv is telling me to play for you”
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Greg,
i owned the k1 grandioso. It’s not the same as the k01. The grandioso don’t have those settings. They got rid of them. |
Thank you Shannere. Happy new year. |
SWEETNESS= ENGAGING, TONS OF FATIGUE FREE LISTENING SESSIONS, NOT TRANSPARENT (meaning NOT TRUE TO THE SOURCE). It imposes its own sound signature regardless of how crappy the incoming signal is.
The esoteric k1 is transparent (not sweet). It gives you everything that comes to it. It does not make a crappy tv digital signal sound outstanding. It presents it very dull. The luxman "fixes" crappy signals by imposing its "sweetness" and making most sources far more enjoyable.
Luxman is sweet sounding and NOT DULL AT ALL. i can listen to luxman for hours and not once do i feel that it sounds dull or boring. Quite the opposite. |
There’s nothing wrong with liking one or the other. For instance, I was just reading about the comparison of the bmw 750 vs S550. Both great but the driving experience is very different. It is hard to pick one over the other. It’s the same thing with audio equipment when you get to
a certain price point. I like inviting sound that grabs me and makes me listen. Transparent is good but at times it can get me upset because maybe it’s a song I like and it sounds horrible and at that moment I prefer the component that is not transparent so I can enjoy that one song a little more. We all have songs that we love from our youth that dont sound good today with our components and that blows.
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Lampizator vs msb.... oh boy it’s coming to a final decision in the next few days... |
Ok guys,
im picking up the Lampizator pacific tomorrow. If you all recommended me the lampizator on this thread and it doesn’t deliver, I’ll come after you all lol
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The Lampizator was chosen by me based on my knowledge of the synergy that tubes and panels have. I also want to try a source that is a totally different presentation than the solid state dacs I’ve owned. So yes it was picked taking into account the rest of my system. I am a sucker for that 3D effect that tubes give you and that feeling should be enhanced even more with this dac. Again, this is my preliminary feeling but I won’t know until tomorrow night.
I also feel like I’ve gotten to a good point with amplification for my Neolith. Sure there will be more amps for me to try but I’m not really rushing to try more and more. Instead, I’m looking at the rest of my set up in order to tweak the sound to my liking. The ref10/block audio se combo is brutal. It will throw a sound that you keep looking behind your head checking to see if you have surround sound speakers. Lastly, over the last 4 days, there is something that’s been happening to my system. It feels as if things are slowly starting to “click in place” better which has given me more and more enjoyment. That said, about a week ago I wasn’t getting this same effect. I felt as if things were dull or muffled. Now they don’t sound like that anymore. Maybe that’s my ref10 still going through a break in process? I have not turned off the block audios since I got them. They are left on even if no music is playing since they automatically switch to eco mode after a signal hasn’t been played for 15 minutes.
Who knows what is happening but I’ve been quite impressed over the last few days with how things are just working together. |
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Picture of the lampizator has been uploaded to my virtual system :) |
Lampizator pacific has been fired up and playing for the last 30 min. Impressions to come tonight for the first product of 2019. Stay tuned ! |
Everything is stock on the dac. No tube rolling at this time.
It also has the preamp option with remote but this is a single ended only dac. I plan to use it as a preamp down the road to see how it sounds with the block audios.
as far as why I didn’t get the gold dac, well I was told it’s in a pain in the a$$ to keep it clean and it’s a fingerprint magnet.
I will give my initial thoughts later tonight for those of you who are interested in hearing my impressions. |
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It has two 300b and one 5u4G towards the front.
@mitch2
i would say you should stick to a pair of 600.8s. I just can’t lie, I simply don’t like pass labs as much as I once did before. There are so many better amps out here. I’ve said to try the simaudio 860a and Luxman 900u instead.
The xs300s are probably something magical though... that is an amp I must have at some point in my journey.
Lastly, if the lampizator Pacific DAC ends up with better synergy than my ref10, I’d be sure to post it here. I still believe the ref10 is oustanding but I did hear it with Rockport speakers and I did not like it. |
We are all in agreement that the floor needs a carpet, back wall needs some and corners need bass traps. Im just not a fan of ceiling treatment, then the entire side wall is pretty much trrated etc. That’s when I feel like it just makes the presentation too laid back.
Techno- you are probably right but I’m not there. Trust me the 30 min I heard yesterday was enough for me to hold back and check again today if what I heard was in fact the right thing.
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Techno,
FYI, I just woke up and wasn’t able to do critical listening last night. I don’t like doing any sort of analysis when I’m tired because as I had previously explained on this thread, your ears don’t work the same when you are tired. The same effect that happens to your eyes when you are tired ( blurry vision and constant rubbing of your eyes) is what your brain does with your hearing (shuts it down).
I will try to do some listening at some point today if I can (family duties).
You also mentioned that this was an amp thread and that im not doing that anymore. Did you forget I have the musical fidelity titan arriving next week or do you only choose to hear/read what you want? I also stated a few weeks/months ago that the pool is getting shallower in terms of amplifiers that I want to try. Im
not sure where the disconnect is? |
Bingo... that’s my point viber |
Before I update on my thoughts on the dac, I wanted to say that I went to listen to some incredible equipment yesterday. I heard a full gryphon system with the $120,000 msb dac connected to it and it was just amazing. So clean, forceful and smooth with plenty of oomph. I really did not think I’d like the full gryphon set up as much as I did. However, the msb $120,000 dac was the most analog sounding dac I’ve ever heard. It was shocking to say the least. The one thing I can say is that I can’t for sure say HOW MUCH of the awesome sound was attributed to the dac or the gryphon components. Was it 60% dac and 40% gryphon? Hard to tell but it was a sublime experience.
All that said, the biggest take away for me was that I realize I don’t like rooms that are overly done. This is why I realize that each time I go to listen to a different component at a store I feel it “relaxed and less lively” sounding. I get the feeling I’m probably the type that would like a room that is treated but that STILL has a little “lively feeling” to it. I want the music to still expand and spread without it being totally absorbed by all the room treatment. I’m not sure if you all can understand what’s im trying to say but essentially what I’m saying is that too much room treatment might not be my cup of tea.
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Just got done listening to the lampizator for 2 hours as a preamp and as a source. My impressions will be posted tonight.
in the meantime, I will leave you what the impressions from my wife of the lampizator:
1. More bass than the ref 10
2. More detail
my thoughts to come later.... |
Alright guys,
So today I’ve listened to my Lampizator pacific more and managed to get a few thoughts down when using it as a source:
1. Incredible musicality
2. Longer music sessions than expected (which Luxman components did a great job at)
3. The darkest backgrounds with crazy “pop”
4. Huge soundstage
5. The most engaging presentation I’ve known which All Luxman components have in spades but this is a much higher level than Luxman.
6. Far more mid bass than ever before
7. Midrange is more focused dead center than before. It feels as if words are articulated better. You ever heard a song where you can’t make out the words? Nope not here, not with this dac. It will spell out the words for you.
8. Strings sound so real. As a matter of fact, just about everything sounds more real and less “digital”.
9. Smooth but with a great level of detail
10. Music unfolds more “emotion” that my previous solid state dacs could barely pull off.
Overall, this dac gets a 10/10 from me. It has more of what I always wanted to hear through my Neoliths (holographic sound and soul) and has really turned my music upside down (in a good way). In the past I praised Luxman for keeping me on the couch for hours and hours due to its musicality and engaging sound, but this dac is Luxman’s father.
I’d buy this dac 10 times again after hearing it in my system. It’s a keeper just like my ref10. There have been 2 components that I’ve always loved throughout my journey: Luxman components and the audio research preamplfiers. Well, now make it 3 with this dac.
I also give a ton of credit to my neoltihs for making it so much easier for me to detect the changes in sound. The massive wall of sound makes a deaf person hear changes in sound as components are swapped out. I don’t think I’ve had a speaker that’s made things this easy.
***************EXTREMELY IMPRESSED WITH THIS DAC *******************
Tomorrow I will give my initial impressions of this Dac as a preamp using my wireworld silver 7 single ended cables (will buy platinum 8 single ended cables next week)
Stay tuned |
i agree with you viber. That said, there are components that you don't get to immediately feel/hear what they are doing until you sit down for a few hours.
i have ran across components where i sat down and i did not feel like "wow" right at that moment, but rather hours later. i feel like there is a slight adjustment that your brain/ears need to go through in order to tell you the full story of what is being heard. |
techno,
Once again, you are going off of the "he said/she said" mentality.
what experience DO YOU HAVE with dacs driving amps directly?
Reading a book doesn’t make you brighter than the person who knows how to do job because they have hands on experience. In fact, experience is preferred over someone who does not have any, but has a degree. It is the same here.... no different.. This is not my first rodeo trying to get a dac to sound better than my preamp. i tried doing this with the ps audio directstream back when i owned it. It never sounded better than my preamps at that point in time. I wish this dac killed my ref10 so i can do exactly what you said i should do: sell the ref10. Why would i want to have that money strapped in my system if the dac was murdering my ref10?? Believe me, i would love for this dac to do just that (beat my ref 10), but right now it is not doing that. |
Alright boys, grab your popcorn and sit down. Here are my thoughts on the lampizator pacific using wireworld silver 7 single ended cables connected to my block audios:
1. More bottom end than using the ref10 in the middle
2. Great level of detail & clarity
3. Long decays from instruments
4. A little more (a tad more detail at times)
5. Smaller soundstage than ref10
6. Same level of musicality as if using the ref10 in the middle
7. No fatigue regardless of how hard you push the volume
These are my impressions of the lampizator with my "ok" rca cables. This is why i want to try the platinum 8 or gold 8 interconnects this week to see how that enhances it. The ref10 adds a much larger presentation, it tones down the extra bottom end which helps my neoliths not get too "bottom end" happy. The ref 10 essentially adds the finishing touches to the lampizator dac. It adds a much larger presentation with deeper soundstages plus more volume of course. That said, IF I DID NOT HAVE the ref10, i would be perfectly happy using the lampizator as my preamp. It is truely amazing as a preamp and possibly beats many many preamps out there. I am not done with the lampizator as a preamp. I still need to try different cables and see how much closer i can get to the ref10 (if that is possible).
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Lol. I think he wants to replace his McIntosh preamp with the ref10 haha
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Jonaiken,
this is exactly how I feel about my ref10 right now and you have one hell of a dac too. I’m not going to lie, I would not mind if my Lampizator bested my ref10 so I can sell my ref10 but that’s not the case.... there’s a reason why I can’t get to sell my ref10 and I’ve parted ways with other incredible equipment such as the Rowland 925s, Luxman components, etc etc.
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Because musical fidelity is not moving product at the same rate as the boutique super hero brands do. I can sit here and retire with what I’m hearing right now and not miss any other amp I’ve owned. Does this mean this amp bests other amps I’ve owned? I guess you’ll need to keep reading my thread to find out... |
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I’ll go on record and say it now: musical fidelity titan has the biggest, boldest soundstage I’ve ever heard. If you lack soundstage, forget Every amp I’ve listed here. Musical fidelity is #1 in terms of soundstage height, width. Enough said.
this type of discovery makes me happy because I get to experience what some low key brands are capable of while the entire crowd of audiophiles are investing in the dumb brands that I won’t go into naming in order to not hurt anyone’s feelings but you all know what Amplifier brands I’m talking about. |
Musical fidelity titan has arrived. Can’t get it out of the box by myself. Power supply chassis is 170 lbs. wireworld gold 8 and platinum 8 rca are in the house as well.
This weekend I’m having a shoot out of the block audios vs musical fidelity titan and lampizator (with new better rcas) vs ref10.
Who’s in ? |
Musical fidelity titan: the largest, biggest, most expansive soundstage I’ve ever heard in my life. 3 football fields put together. Devastating swings of air like a tornado in Oklahoma. |
