From the gentleman i sold the GA TRP2 to:
I listened until 3:30 in the morning. I heard things on familiar songs I ain’t never heard before. 
It’s taken the brightness and fatiguing sound out of the mix. The music is now so satisfying. I’m thinking about canceling the order for the new speakers.
Spending the money on some new amps. 
Next, I’m going to run the Lampi as a solo preamp. Stand by for the review.
Did you respond saying it’s not as good as the GA TRP3? I mean you got paid already right?
The GATRP3 is definitely much more exciting… esp when it didn’t turn on…
All joking aside, I’m very curious to hear @Souldriver’s comparison of the E53 and E11, although he’s using different rectifiers and now a brand new unused fuse.
At this point he has probably listened to the 2 for longer than i have the 2 & 3 combined.
When are you going to try the EL51?
During the week i am usually busy with work and keeping my head above water. Hopefully this weekend i can give it more time.
Been trying to sell my L4/G4 since getting the Mystique V2 SE from @dB_Cooper over a year ago but the ad expired on USAM again, so I decided I’d give it a try with the Headamp Gilmore Lite Mk2 + GRPS and it’s a wonderful combination.
However, it usually takes a few power cycles for the DAC to output audio. It only had this problem once, maybe twice when I was using it in my 2-channel system for the better part of a year, but since taking it out of its box and using it again for headphones, it’s pretty much every time.
It took 5 cycles this morning for audio to be output. In the meantime, I could hear hum of the tubes through my headphones, and a squiggly noise for a second after cutting power. I unplugged the AES cable, flipped the switches for PCM/DSD and Coaxial/AES, but nothing did anything. I even let it run for about 5 minutes on one cycle, just to see if it hadn’t warmed enough, but it was still just silence (aside from tube hum). On the 5th power up, I could immediately hear music and it faded in/got louder as the tubes powered up and it’s been working flawlessly since.
This pretty much ensures I can’t sell it now, because I don’t want to deal with a buyer complaining/wanting a refund, and without a for-sure fix aside from just power cycling and hoping, this DAC is compromised.
Anyone have any ideas about what might be happening?
Reach out to Lampi and see what they think. Unfortunately your only option is repair here but given the prices of other Lampi DACs coming down, it’s going to be a tough sell if you have to spend on repair. The L4 G5 is much closer to a modern Amber 3 design wise and those have held their value a bit better than the L4 G4.
That said, they’re relatively simple so perhaps (depending on how handy you are) get in there and re-seat everything and loosen and re-tighten all of the connections etc. You have replacement tubes you can swap?
The Amber 3 since there were so many of those has been lowering the price floor. I’ve seen some of them in the mid $2k pricing.
Is it more consistent if you use a different input and not AES? Just thinking if a buyer might not need AES…
Unless it’s specific to the AES input, from the description, it sounds more like it’s a power supply issue, probably related to either the soft start circuit, or if it has one the muting relay.
It’s probably straight forwards for any tech to identify the issue, if you can find someone locally.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll see if I can find someone locally to take a look at it. Sigh.
@dB_Cooper do you happen to recall what the specs on the L4/G5 were? It is damn near impossible to find anything about it. I stumbled on this old, horrible site that has some general L4 DAC details.
According to that link, the L4 uses a 6X5 rectifier and ECC81, ECC88 and ECC82 tubes. However, mine uses a NOS RCA 5Y3 rectifier and NOS Amperx E80F tubes. On top of that, the L4 page says they came with Jupiter caps (no other as an option even), however, mine has Duelund copper foil caps.
I found the email from the person I bought it from who confirmed it was upgraded from a 3 to 4, then 4 to 4+, I just cannot seem to find anything concrete about these various models, and he did not have the documentation for what the 4+ upgrade was. I seem to recall some off-hand forum post saying that the L4/G4+ was mostly a G5. But maybe I’m just making that up.
https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1214/LampizatOr_Generation_5_Level_4_DAC_Review.htm
Difficult especially the Lampis of a decade ago! This link is where I got my info from when I bought it back when. @ericg here on the forum still has it.
Rob from Lampizator USA told me there is a service technician here in the US. Somewhere in Pennsylvania i believe. Reach out to him and Fred and see if that would be a reasonable option for you to consider. Good luck 
Not about the products, but…
our SonusApparatus review of the Horizon is on the Lampizator Facebook page! Woohoo for the team!
Putting this here for some others looking at Lampis
My chain:
K50 (local files) → Callisto USB → Lampi GATRP3 → Anticables 6.2 RCA → Eddie Current Studio B → Dana Lazuli Ultra → OG Focal Utopia. The EC has 2 Elrog 300B-Mo, a Bendix 2c51, and a fat base Mullard GZ34, which all have been unchanged across DACs.
I listen to most rock and metal, rap/hip-hop, acoustic, jazz, splashes of classical, edm, pop, and almost anything 90’s. Really anything besides new country.
My TRP tube rolling impressions so far:
TRP2 E53 (all of these were from short listening sessions and over a year ago, this is from memory)
PSVane EL34 + KR 5U4G: This was the stock combo and i disliked it greatly. It was a small shoe box sized stage with a sound just as compressed and small. People say the PSVane tubes take a long time to break in but it would of needed go be a night and day turn around to even be considered.
New GL KT77 + KR 5U4G: Much, muuuuch better. Super enhanced high end. Not fatiguing or painful, but very prominent detail. Still not huge sounding width wise, but youre out of the box and everything goes very deep. A more neutral, technicalities based combo.
GEC KT66 Grey Glass + KR 5U4G: An heirloom wool blanket and tumbler or whiskey in front of the fireplace on a winter night. Like entering an old manor and you can see the sun poking in and highlighting the dust suspended in the air. Ethereal, ghostly, haunting, amazing golden mid warmth. The stage is big and even enough that I dont remember anything negative, but cant remember anything remarkable either.
TRP3 E11 (Compared to the 2, I find the 3 to generally be more neutral and a little more laid back. Much more balanced and even kilter with it’s energy. Less boisterous but more refinement.)
F2a + RK 25th 5U4G: I need to revisit this. Ot was the first set I tried as things warmed up. I dont remember the bass but I do remember some aspects of realism were very impressive and had me fooled looking outside as i thought some of the sounds in the music were actually happening. Percussive, like a music teacher tapping on your desk to the emphasize the beat.
F2a + Metal base Mullard GZ34: So far my standard. Bass punches and feels appropriate but sub bass rolls off just at the point of being noticed. This reminds me of the GL KT77 but with a half degree warmer tilt, smoother detail rendering, and a bigger well rounded stage. Dynamics are ok, but I would like a little more in the macro swings and more energy for say when an electric guitar roars in with overdriven power chords.
Tesla EL51 + RK 25th 5U4G: Not a combo I enjoyed. Felt like it was falling flat in most aspects. Was expecting more from the descriptions others had with the EL51.
Tesla EL51 + WE 442a: First impression, holy jeez that WE is BRIGHT! Not sound wise but if i didnt know better this could be a light bulb. But, I am getting more of what others were talking about. I dont know if I would say it is explosive but definitely not flat any more. Things feel out there and distant, vocals are back in the mix, further and more mixed in than I would like. Bass is odd. I can hear it but It’s like expecting to be hit with a ton of bricks but theyre all made of soft foam. There is no feel, like the drivers arent moving. It feels like when your headphones / speakers are underpowered and they just cant exert correct. No tactility or texture to speak of. It lacked any meat on the bone it needed.
Tesla EL51 + Metal base Mullard GZ34: Ok, I did say the F2a was my favorite combo, but after not listening to the EL51 for a while I figured I would give it another chance today, so here are my notes as I listen. Much, much better than previous EL51 impressions. It feels more filled out and complex in the midrange. Very nice for acoustic. The space is less vague, and vocals are locked in with a little romance. Things are starting to swirl all over but are resolute with good imaging, but youll need to be a fan of things being more intimate. Macro dynamics are now what everyone hinted at, more appropriate than overdone but good flow and works well with the micro side of things. Bass is better, more than adequate for most things, but is a little loose and not as quick or hard hitting as the Mojo. Bass guitar lines that would bounce and have pop on the Mojo, still hide a little too far back for my preferences here. Better bass texture though, so a tradeoff for sure. Things like bass drums kick still flush in vs punching out. Really this combo is made for guitar lovers. The texture, timbre, tactility, and sparkle are tailor made for guitar lovers. Hard rock yes, metal may be a little mismatched. And the biggest flaw is it seems it doesnt know when to put things forward or back, and there is no middle ground. So one track vocals and guitars are nice and up front, the next they are way back.
GEC KT77 + WE 422a / Mullard GZ34: Tbh, I never thought I would see a NOS KT77 tube in person so I jumped when i saw one listed. I was expecting a better version of the new prod GLs but it really is not. The caveat here is these may not be burned in nearly enough. They are for sure descendants of the EL34 and lean much more mullard el34 than gl kt77, the mid emphasis gives it away. Bass and treble are more present but not like the GL where that tube is more U or V shaped. A tighter sound overall but see my EL51 + WE impressions regarding everything else.
Tubes on the list to try:
A bunch of rectis (80 globe, classic RCAs, 274B), RCA 6L6, GEC KT66, GEC KT88, TungSol 6550, maybe a few more.
I also had note from some on another forum that some Lampis may output reverse polarity. So it may be worth checking if possible.
Any way you could have tried the same tubes from the TRP2 on the TRP3? Otherwise hard to compare fairly the differences between the two machines, no?
Dude, did you not try the WE422A + F2a? That was like my go-to…
The GL KT77s went with the trp2 sale. The kt66s are still here and are on the list to try.
I thought i did try the WE with the f2a, but… I dont remember. If i did i didnt give it enough time to write about. Maybe tomorrow as i WFH.
How do you find the Lampi GATRP3 compared to the TRP2 or too soon to compare until the tube selection on the 3 is honed in?
