Yes it is.
I never had a reason to open up my Amber 3 while I had it, but I did have to open up my Lev4 Gen 5 to re-seat a tube that had loosened during shipping. The Amber series is a direct descendant from these and it’s interesting to see how the design changes over the years.
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Are you able to say how the sound has changed?
Oh, I just looked closer! Is that a taller rectifier tube on its side?
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Odd that the PCB says Lampizator Baltic
Mine said the same thing, they commonly reuse components across the DAC’s, in the newer Lampizators everything except the Pacific uses the same DAC board, they all use Amanero USB boards etc etc,
Most tube circuits are very similar, just with different resistor values, and tubes, The Baltic is probably just populated different components.
It’s somewhat interesting it has both a diode base rectifier and a tube based one.
Different tubes, different components on the PCB and a beefier power supply differentiates the models? Makes sense.
Not an apples to apples comparison other than with headphones which I think limits being able to get the most of what the se DACs can do. When I first heard my Amber in my 2-ch system I almost had a feeling of vertigo at one point, the staging, depth and overall timbre of the DAC made me feel as if I was falling off stage when I got up from my seat at one point. It was such a leap in performance to what I’d gotten out of a DAC before.
Having moved and not being able to compare the older DAC in my old environment, all I have it the experience with the VC and Eikon as well as an HD600. The Amber 3 is certainly better with transients and overall tighter and more control in the bass but they are clearly siblings in performance and not that far apart. Given that I paid half for the L4G5 of what an Amber goes for in the used market, I just wanted a decent desktop system. The fact that it has more connectivity options (AES, BNC, Coax and Optical) besides the std. Amanero 384 USB. It’s also balanced which I think is one of the reasons I find the staging and instrument detail/placement on par with the Amber. I think I got a steal with it.
I spent most of my time with a Yggy as my previous desktop DAC, and the L4G5 is in every way “mo better” than that. 
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There’s an L4G4 on usam… and it is very interesting how much they change with G5. The tubes face down on the G4?
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Wow that’s a completely different platform altogether and they’re using breadboards instead of PCBs. And yeah I’ve seen pics of the L4 with a hole in the bottom of the case cut out for the tubes, I didn’t know it was a G4 though.
I will warn that I don’t think going anything below gen 5 is worthwhile, unless you find an insanely highway robbery price on a gen 4. The gen 5 is a sizable step ahead of the gen 4, the gen 4 is still decent, but I think saving/waiting to get a gen 5 is a smarter idea since I don’t recall them being that far off from each other used at this point
While I don’t think the gen 5 is at amber level, it can be a good buy if the price is right. With a gen 4, I’d be much more iffy with recommending for what they still go for
Also don’t go lower than gen 4 (but I’ve never heard a gen 3 or below so can’t comment, this is hearsay from a friend, but I trust their judgement)
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So I’m glad my “leap of faith” worked out then! I know we lean on you a lot and expect you to have ALL the answers… I was kind of shocked when you told me you didn’t know whether or not the L4G5 would be a good buy or not! lol
Clearly based on the pics, it’s much closer to the later Amber/3 than it was to the prior G4 and older.
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It’s been awhile since I’ve heard one and I didn’t know how good of a price that is (since I haven’t compared to more modern DACs at that similar price with it, makes it hard to judge value)
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Well I’ve successfully given my Amber 3 fresh tubes. Certainly can’t recommend tube rolling frequently with this dac as it’s a bit of a pain getting access to them and I wouldn’t want to put wear and tear on those sockets. Luckily I have no desire to and probably just do it once a year or two.
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Oh, did you contact Lampizator direct? Mine is almost 3 and I was considering tubes…
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Contact them about the replacement timeframe? No. If I’m home during the day the Amber 3 is on which won’t be the case for everyone. I got mine used so I wanted new tubes for peace of mind mostly. It was still sounding good with the stock tubes.
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I meant did you purchase tubes direct from them?
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Oh. No, they don’t stock tubes in the US unfortunately. I did ask and Rob suggested ‘buying from a reputable tube vendor in the US’.
Tubes needed for Amber 3: 1 ecc99, 1 ecc82 (or 12au7), 1 6x5
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Seems there is an Amber 4 coming, considering the dates mentioned it should already be available.
From the lampizator website:
Following our huge efforts to create the Baltic-3 and the Pacific DAC we gained enough knowhow and confidence to redesign the Amber DAC from ground up, and offer an entirely new product. Circa around November 25th 2021 we start shipping Amber-4, while technical necessities caused us to phase out Amber-3 entirely.
Further below they mention “Refreshed and updated DAC for 2022, not a mere face lift” under the facts about Amber 3 section…
Tecnical necessities… an AKM to ESS or FGPA refactor maybe?
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Very odd but i guess needed even iirc the amber 3 is relatively new.
In side news the guy with the atlantic was selling his Baltic for only $300 less than new. And it looks like he swapped stock tubes out to electro harmonix which imho is a downgrade.
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I somehow secured a demo invitation to hear the new LampizatOr Horizon and to meet Lukas and the NA distributor.
I will write up my impressions when I hear it in February. Pretty excited for it.
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