I finally compared the "stock" Sylvania VT-99 tubes with a pair of National Union VT-99 tubes. The NU tubes are far more dynamic, lively, spatial compared to the Sylvania having a rather dark and somewhat flat presentation. Three hours with the Sylvania was all I could handle after hearing the far more exciting NU tubes. If you're running an L6 with the Sylvania tubes, you are missing so much magic that comes with using the NU tubes.
Perhaps the Raytheon or Tung-Sol VT-99's might bring on further magic, but the NU VT-99's for now are outstanding. It is easy to sit here for hours and hours and listen to music I have heard for 10-20 years, mostly on LPs and hear so much new detail. Now that's saying a lot! |
Hi Lukasz, Does level 7 down samples high resolution input like level 6 does? I'm not sure if both level 6 and 7 uses the same dac chip. On redbook material how would you compare the sound between level 6 and level 7? |
I am glad the Big 6 is liked, because more than any other DAC it is my baby and my favorite model. I use it at home myself. |
No problem guys,
Up to speed now. Thanx |
Wisnon,
Sorry, I just thought most people on this site were familiar with the knowledgable and long time contributor on audiogon. |
Albert Porter is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable members here on phono setup, tube electronics and tube rolling, electrostatic speakers, and cabling. He taught me so much through the mid 2000s which along with JD of Jade Audio, took my system to a level far beyond what it had been before. |
Albert Porter photographer and audio guru. |
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According to Al Porter Allnic has just introduced their DHT DAC and he's ordered one. Having heard the Lamp level 7 it'd be fun to contrast these two
different DHT circuit products. The Allnic will be at the Munich audio show.
Charles, |
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Andrew,
I believe that you will simply love the Lampizator level 7. DHT tubes when implemented property convey emotion and music's soul divinely! I have DHTs in my amplifier and line stage and just adore the music they produce. I hope your wait for delivery isn't too long.
Charles, |
Chales1Dad,
I agree with you. My UK buddy has a L5 with DSD and when he sent it back for an upgrade, he wanted a backup Dac for lesser cost and he got the BMC. He says its a great backup unit for the price, "but aint no Lampi"!
There is no way a PureDac can replace a Lampi L6.... |
Grannyring and Lissnr: Thank you for the support and encouragement. "Natural presentation" is indeed the best description so far.
A temptation as a tube-roller is to try other tubes but the result here with the stock tubes is truly wonderful. This is not the typical purchase of a line stage or phono stage loaded with crappy Sovtek or EH tubes that immediately need to be changed. But it has been suggested that I try another tube type for the audio stage. So I will try that out next week when it arrives and report back.
My experience with Counterpoint/Aria products has been that the Rectifier tube has a major influence on the performance. So one day when I am truly without anything to do, I will look into trying other rectifier tubes on the L6 as well. But this unit really does not have me itchy to try other tubes like virtually every other tube product has in the past. It's great to get something magical right out of the box. |
Jafox, you will also find that after a few hundred hours of listening you will be somewhat " re-conditioned" into how natural reproduced music has become via the L6. There will never be any feeling of "artificiality" to your music room ( not assuming you noticed or felt there necessarily was before but...) you will simply 'gel' with the music like you've never really known before...it's truly a beguiling experience. I have found Lampizator in general to have this simply natural presentation, my L4G4 hooked me into it but the Level 6 [IMHO] has completely redefined the notion of " personal listening experience" in your own home... Congratulations! |
Jafox, your Lampi will open up so much more after 200 hours. |
Tbg,
I heard the BMC DAC (show conditions all BMC system) and it wasn't bad. I've heard the Lampizator level 5 (big box) extensively and in all sincerity the Lampizator is in a different realm reproducing music. Jafox made a good choice and I doubt he'll regret it.
Charles, |
Some great Axpona feedback:
From minute 21:30 ... www.youtube
and
http://www.stereophile.com/content/vapor-audio-purity-lampizator Nice. That is high praise from Myles given he is a vinyl head. Jafox, Remember what I said about avoiding hearing the $1790 BMC PureDac. I know someone who had both and he favored the Lampi by a wide margin. If vinyl is your frame of reference, there is no better choice than "from Poland with Love...." My L7 is finally on order. |
Jafox, Remember what I said about avoiding hearing the $1790 BMC PureDac. |
Yes, I moved faster than the Flash to get the L6. Gosh I love this unit. Wow!
And I will not part with the SL speakers. I have optimized the system around these. I just need to get the amps back online. But last night the lowly Counterpoint amp did its backup duty to show the pure magic of the L6.
Right out of the box, the L6's resolution and tonality was exceptional except for one thing .."where's the bass?" I was thinking the Counterpoint was just not able to do it. And yet this was not a problem with the Manley Ref DAC or APL Denon player. And then an hour l realized the bass had arrived and everything had become silky smooth. This unit so rapidly made me forget about the system and got me into the musical enjoyment.
It clearly takes the L6 an hour or so to warm up and I was just too impatient to wait this required time to listen before powering on a cold unit. Being a tubeaholic for 30+ years, I knew better. But I just could not wait to hear this. I will keep the unit powered on all the time now. |
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Jafox. I would love to hear your system sometime. You move fast!
I used to own Soundlab A1 speakers! Loved them. |
I just took delivery of the Big L6 tonight and I am going crazy with the clarity, smoothness and delineation! I am in the twin cities if anybody cares to stop by. Only sad thing is I am using a backup Counterpoint NPS 400 amp to drive the Soundlab A1s and not the CAT JL-3s as the system was moved to the living room and I have only one 20-amp circuit here. So I need an electrician!
John |
LoL
Lampi Dac is the UN-digital. |
Grannyring, Would you mind if I emailed you for some guidance if I decide to order one? You're in MN right? |
You guys are making me want one of these! Please stop! |
Some great Axpona feedback:
From minute 21:30 ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrmbTDbvHPA
and
http://www.stereophile.com/content/vapor-audio-purity-lampizator |
Reminder to check out the L7 in person in room 432 at AXPONA. Our room is shaping up quite nicely. |
How does the 3 box L& differ from the BIG box L7 sonically? |
John,
1. Demand for the L7 has been quite overwhelming to the point that myself and my co-distributor are still awaiting our own personal/demo units to be able to show locally on Long Island, NY. Hearing the DAC at a show is your best option for the time being.
So far for 2014 were at THE Show in Las Vegas, Headfi in Cali, Headfi in NY and will be leaving on Thursday for AXPONA in Chicago (reminder all, come check out us in We have a cracker of a room shaping up in 432 where we'll be partnered with Vapor Audio, Purity Audio Design and Verastarr).
We will also be at T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach, the NY Show and possibly others. I know this is not the same as an in home audition, but we are dedicating a lot of time and energy towards getting our products heard by the masses.
2. Lukasz does not believe any of the tube options have a sonic advantage over one another necessarily, however 45 is the least micro phonic and coolest thermally.
3. No spinning disks or moving parts. There are two variations of the LampizatOr Transport. One is based on the Squeezebox DUET mainboard and the other is essentially a USB to SPDIF converter. Both are tube rectified units which offer a very unique TUBED spdif output.
4. I'm not sure anyone has made the comparison in this thread, only speculation. I will avoid adding my own subjective opinions.
5. Our USB input is very competent, but we have had people prefer going both with and without Offramps. I have not tried an offramp myself so I have no opinion either way.
6. That is a personal question. I have the DSD option but have used it exactly twice in my own home. Your PCM will never be true DSD, but you can convert it through software for use with the DSD section. If your computer is up to it, I believe "on the fly" is an option.
Thanks John and I hope to see some of you guys in Chicago this weekend! |
I have been following this thread for months and months. And have re-read it several times. Here are a handful of questions:
1: How do I audition or get an L7 in my home for audition?
2: Pros/cons/experiences of the output tube options in the L7?
3: Lots of talk of the Lampizator transport. Is this a modern day disk spinner or is "transport" used freely to define a storage space of music files? I am pretty much done with dealing with disks.
4: In the many responses here, there were go's and no-go's with using a Mac Mini as the storage vs. a "transport". But the overall feeling here seemed to be that the MM was a well-respected source into the L DAC's. Still true?
5: How is the USB input on the L5-L7 or is it recommended to use the OffRamp devices to go from the source to this and then into the DAC via SPDIF?
6: Is the DSD option truly a no-brainer? And if so, is my entire music library of .wav files useless for this format? .. and do I need the music converted/captured to a whole new format to benefit from this DSD?
John |
Mitch2
Call Sonic Craft. 20 percent off sale and they can ship next week. |
Has anyone actually compared an L5 with Duelands to an L6 or L7? |
The new Jupiter copper caps are out Hi Bill, did you order these directly from Chris at Jupiter? I do not see them yet on the website but I was hoping to obtain some in time to use on a current project. |
Good question. These are caps before the chip in the power supply and the caps for storage of the signal out of the CD reader. |
Grannyring, why do you need to change caps in the Oppo if you are going directly from the chip direct to the digital output. |
Tbg,
The L7 uses power amp DHT tubes. They are harder to work with but the sonic payoff is actually in the extra headroom and ease to the music.
This is what I heard from Lukasz anyway. |
Tbg, I don't think just any active preamp would sound better. But a truly great one will always in my experience. I also think some of this comes down to preference in sound personality.
Love my Lampi! |
The new Jupiter copper caps are out and I have three coming for my Lampizator. Two for output and one for the input cap. These are said to be as good as Duelunds and tad more musical? We will see.
I used the Lampizator direct transport mod on my old Oppo DVD player to see how good the Oppo could be as a CD spinning transport. Wow! What a great mod. You simply go off pin 215 on the main decoder chip and hook a wire directly to the RCA out. Pin 215 is the SPDIF digital out leg. Bypass all those circuit board traces, caps, surface mounted resistors and go direct! Awesome mod!
I also replace a slew of cheap caps with Silmic II and even some large Solen 100 uf caps with bypass also. I added damping throughout the chassis, bypassed the fuse, added a nicer IEC and the sound is stunning. Better then a CEC I owned that cost big money! Not as good as my computer based front end, but the best transport I have owned that spins discs. The cost of the mod was about $75! |
I don't know what this says about dac output stages. Two amplifier stages versus one should not be superior. Since I have never heard of either line stage you mention, I cannot make other comments. |
I often listen to Jwm's Big L5 Lampizator which goes through his Absolare Passion linestage and it's truly superb. I've heard no direct DAC- amplifier that would come close. Excellent active line stages are indispensable for superior sound in my opinion. In theory eliminating a component and its IC should be better, my ears say otherwise in resounding fashion.
Charles, |
My l4 is far superior through my TRL Dude tubed preamp. |
What is the difference between the L5 and the L7?
Some time ago there was a discussion of the volume control on the L5 at THE Show. I have since heard the L5 into a line stage and then directly into the amp. Unless you have multiple sources, going direct is far superior. |
To any New Yorkers curious about our Level 7 Statement DAC, we will have one on display this Saturday at the official New York Head-fi meet in Babylon, New York.
The unit is burning in now and should have over a hundred hours on it by show time and should be ready to impress! |
Thanks Ryan, I will pass along the info. |
No pictures yet as the first pair is still under construction, but soon. Prototypes were built to test the design, now we're finishing up the final production version.
They'll have plenty of output for medium sized rooms with as little as, for example a 9wcp 300B SET. We don't fudge our sensitivity specs like most manufacturers do, so 93db will be an honest 93db. But like always, deciding how much power you need depends on the listeners wants. If you want to keep the dynamic punch and bass fullness, you'll probably want to start more in the 20-25w range.
At AXPONA we'll be using them with the new Purity 18wpc 300B monoblocks. |
Ryan,
Oh, do you have pictures? When will they be available. I may have a UK buddy who is interested. |
Ryan,
What will be the minimum reccoomed power for a tube amp to drive the Derecho? |
Hey Fred, we're really looking forward to the show as well! I'll have some time to get to know the Lampizator at home, which will also be fantastic. With the room we've put together I have no doubt it'll be a must hear.
We (Vapor Audio) will be debuting the Derecho - 93db floorstander, CNC cut stacked ply-lamination cabinet, and drivers like you said. It'll come in at under $8K/pair. Components that punch well above their price tag will be the name of the game in our room. |
Wisnon,
I know! I'm quite excited for this show--I think we will have everything dialed in on time and be ready for action when the doors open.
Vapor will be featuring their new "mini-Nimbus" speaker called Derecho. Per Ryan: it will look like a bulked up, floor standing Cirrus. It will feature dual 8" pro-sound woofers, a high sensitivity ultra low distortion 6.5" mid, and the RAAL 70-20XR tweeter and is supposed to be around $8k. |
Wow!!!
L7 in da house with Vapor...yummy. Which Vapor speakers?
Make sure to play some Lampi DSD too! |
