Lampizator Big7

[Sligolad]

Well I finally found time to share some of my thoughts so far on the Lampizator Big7 DAC.

I made the decision to purchase in June this year after hearing Tony’s Lampizator 4.5 DAC which gave me a taste of a sound I liked and confirmed a long held suspicions that Mister Fikus was indeed a genius maverick who has a good ear.

As a lead up to the purchase I always had a leaning towards a DCS DAC, a Meitner/EMM Labs DAC or a Lampizator DAC. Three very different DAC’s in terms of design philosophy from three very different companies.

Circumstances two years ago conspired such that I had a less than optimal experience in almost purchasing a DCS Debussy (Sales rather than Sound related), I chickened out at the thought of bringing in a DAC from Poland for a demo with the option to return to eventually finding a dealer a short hop away by plane in the UK who had both an EMM Labs DAC2X and a Meitner MA1. Long story short I purchased the Meitner MA1 and for the past 2 years it has been a purchase that has given me lots of pleasure and owes me nothing.

Fast forward to June and with the help and encouragement of some fellow forum members here I got a good deal from Lukas Fikus (Mr. Lampizator) for a Big7 with all the options available…..well all 2 available, DSD playback and volume control. Order was placed online on the 23rd June.

I finally received the DAC by DHL on the 5th August after a delay waiting on the tubes from Emission Labs. It sounded great out of the box on PCM but DSD was not working on the left channel. Brought it around to Tony’s that evening for a quick comparison with the 4.5 and a DAC under development by Frederic and it sounded good after only a few hours. We discovered that evening that the channels were also switched thanks to some keen and observant TnaHiFi members who were also present.

Lukasz finally came back believing the problem was a faulty batch of Amanero USB Cards with faulty software and I had one, once I had played with the DAC for a while to get some hours on it he had the DAC collected by DHL and back to me within a week at his cost.

I got the DAC back on the 25th Aug and DSD was finally working. I Played DSD tracks over USB and everything sounded great…sounded really promising. After an hour continuing to play DSD I started to notice a kind of static tick begin to appear, much like the static clicks on a turntable on vinyl.

I figured it might be just the Amanero driver requiring a higher ultrasize in Jplay so I began increasing the value but the few light ticks were still appearing in the background. I went back to work and figured playing around with buffers in Jplay might solve it later.

So that evening back to USB DSD the static which was like a very low level crackle began to get worse no matter what I did. I thought it may have been a ground loop but after changing cables nothing would improve it. Going back to USB PCM everything sounded wonderful with no sign of any ticks/crackles.

Going back to DSD again and trying different cables again I noticed when I put my finger on the Big7 chassis the crackle reduced. Putting my hand on the USB in socket the crackle reduced. I pulled out the USB cable and there was a lot of crackle on DSD setting.

On 0db it was almost gone but as soon as I moved the volume to -1 or lower the crackle got worse. I then found if I leaned the USB cable to one side the crackling which was getting worse as the evening went on then improved a lot and almost disappeared. I switched back to PCM and everything was fine no matter which USB cable I used or how it was seated in the USB socket at the back of the Big7.

Playback in DSD appeared to be getting worse the more I use it and even with the USB cable propped up to make it lean to one side the quality of the playback still appeared to be getting poorer. At the start of the day USB DSD Direct sounded best and was really magical with USB PCM DSD a little behind but not much. Had a call with Lukasz but he was a bit stumped by it all.

Lukasz explained that DSD Direct setting has just one output capacitor and he added it for some customers to see if they liked it as some had reported better Sonic’s. The other PCM DSD setting had 2 output capacitors so it was up to the user to determine for themselves which they preferred depending on the music. He agreed to have the DAC collected again as soon as I wanted.

The next evening…………finally some good news, well great news really!!

Coming home that evening I had had enough of trying to force the USB cable into a position to get rid of the noise so I took the top off to see if I could see anything obvious around the USB board and everything looked fine. As soon as I touched the i2s leads off the USB module with an insulated tool the noise was getting worse and better depending on how I moved these leads which route up around the Dueland caps to the next modules.

After spending half an hour moving about these 7 lines in all kinds of positions I found a routing for them where the noise was completely gone both with the USB cable in the socket and out of the socket. Everything sounds wonderful now and probably better than when it arrived yesterday. It appears these i2s lines are acting like major antennae between one another and the surroundings so routing appears to be critical.

I fed this info back to Lukasz and it now looks like the DAC is here to stay. Over the coming week I listened to a lot of music and the Big7 was really growing on me. I did a fresh install of Server 2012 R2 and switched to core mode with Audiophils Optimiser and Jplay. I had considered staying on Minimal Server to use MQN but it has been a bit much like a precocious teenager lately so I have abandoned MQN for the moment in favour of the Core option with Jplay and the easier sample rate switching.

Fast forward a week and I downloaded a DSD 128 album to see if the Big7 could cope with it as I had heard various conflicting reports about whether it would work or not. Once I loaded the first track I heard that dreaded noise on the track again so it appears the wiring off the USB card are still not in the optimum position with the higher intensity data stream from DSD 128. So it was off with the top again and after half an hour teasing the wires into different bends and locations I found a sweet spot with DSD 128 sounding fine.

While I had the top off I decided to use up the last 2 sheets of 3M Emi/Rfi damping material I had left over from the Audio PC build to build a cage around the USB, DSD and DAC cards in the Big7 to maybe help isolate them from any noise from all the surrounding valves, power supplies and all the other electronics in the case. Back on with the top and now everything was sounding great.

Bang goes my warranty maybe but I could not care less as I now have a DAC that sounds better than anything else I have ever had the pleasure to hear in all my years of shows, meet-ups and Scalford trips, I include analogue TT setups in there as well.

This past week the Big7 has proceeded to shock, frighten, startle, leave me in awe and generally lift my listening pleasure to a point I could never have imagined. When I think of it words like Beast and Magical come to mind because of the way it handles whatever I throw at it. It seems it is still improving but some big shift in performance has occurred in the past week where it is now on a whole other level compared to the Meitner, whole other planet really!

I have probably been unlucky with the teething problems I have had but in a way they have better informed me and I feel more intimately connected with the DAC and boy am I glad I persevered with it. Maybe I was unlucky and maybe Lukasz and his team are struggling to meet demands for what is I believe a once in a lifetime piece of kit for musical enjoyment but hopefully they get the rewards they deserve for what is a stunning achievement in digital playback.

I have probably spent too much time above on the hardware for the music purists but to get a real story of what this awesome DAC can do you really need to hear one. Hopefully the story above will help anyone who may have concerns about Lampizator products understand that the support is excellent and more than that the hardware will reward you if you commit to the brand. I have no plans to switch the Meitner back on ever again so it may be going up for sale soon!

Cheers, Pearse.

[Ivor]

Nice write up there, I applaud your patience and perseverance Pearse, great to hear you've found audio nirvana!

[DaveF]

Congrats on the purchase Pearse. Please post up lots of pics! :-) It really looks the business and I'm sure it sounds great too.
I would have been very concerned though with the grounding/usb software issues you experienced initially but well done on addressing it yourself. Had you at any stage the urge the send it back?

[cybot]

Brilliant write up Pearse. Delighted you found Nirvana eventually :)

[Sligolad]

Had you at any stage the urge the send it back?

Never had Dave, the PCM was always fine and it was just the DSD which caused me grief.
I think the DSD add on was about €500 so worst case was look for a refund on that but given the positive feedback I heard on the DSD on the Lamp I thought it was worth persevering with it.
Will post some pics soon.

[nige2000]

Sounds
Good
Looking forward to hearing it again

Though those i2s cables are extraordinarily long
Pity they couldn't be shorter, even to move the amanero closer to the dac chip and use an usb extention from the case would be better
Maybe coax cable for i2s

[Maciej]

Congratulations Pearse. I am dying for to have a chance to listen it someday in your system....and get really crazy angry/jealous ;)

Listening previously the Meitner I know it was superbly detailed but never over analytical, just pleasant to listen DAC. Owning myself pretty basic Lampi to compare with yours or Tony I know that even the one I have is very capable machine.

I remember when I brought mine to you and we swapped Meitner for Lampi the difference was immediate on part of the Meitner. I guess it was partially dependent of the other components in your system and perhaps basic Lampi was not so good match with your valves (valves + valves + QUAD’s )? Tad smeared picture lacking precision, and bloated bass. We experienced the same at Tony’s place before he bought his 4.5 level.

What the Lampi shines on is the tone of the instruments, midrange and unforced presentation. And good thing is you can always upgrade from one level to next. I am about to upgrade mine too and all seems to be reasonably priced.

What is so different from Meitner and Lampi that strike you most and makes you to listen to it?

Regards
Maciej

[Maciej]

.

[tony]

Crestfallen the minute I heard it. Also as an upgrade option for me at some point in the future is just not on as the Big L7 is a completely different beast. Very large deep case and no doubt a destination Dac.
Many happy years with it Pearse. Hope Lukasz takes on board your routing ideas on the wiring.
It makes you wonder about all manufacturers on how they could improve their product by more careful attention to grounding and isolation. Have to start buying lotto tickets again.

[Fran]

Great write up !

Hope to hear it at some of the meet ups...