I used them basically up until I had a current drive amp, but after selling my current drive amp I saw no real reason to keep them around
Well that one is easy if it was me lol, at least if it was in the high end. It would basically either be get a p6p or a lpgt ti, and that’s about it lol since I think those 2 tower over other daps I’ve heard, but a dap article does seem interesting
For the lampi it was what the owner provided which were basically his favorites, I didn’t have any other of that tube type on hand (at least ones I was willing to drag out of storage or other units), the APL was just stock and I had nothing to swap there. I don’t know what the lampi stock config was, I think it might have been a kr 5u4g, kr k88, and psvane 6sn7 but I could be wrong. Not sure how far along you are but I do touch on it later to some extent
Honestly fuck if I know, because I can’t even choose a specific piece of music to call a favorite track in general let alone for a specific chain lol. It’s also in the range where really most all of the music I like excelled with most of these so when everything is standout, it’s hard to pick a standout from a standout lol. I can go back through my notes and grab some stuff if you want later
Thanks thanks
I guess so in a sense
That is somewhat common yes
That’s good to hear, that’s also somewhat a small thing I tried to touch on in the article in terms of talking about the dac brands lower end models if applicable and my very short take on those
Interesting interesting lol, I’m curious what you mean about the last part
I thought el34s were in the mix? Maybe i just saw it was compatible and got excited for those and KT77s
Yes please, only if it isnt a PITA
Mostly that for the relatively small group that is this forum, individually and combined there is tons of experience and knowledge. Mostly everyone is willing to take the time out of their busy schedules, some with writeups like this, some with just proactively reaching out in a DM, etc etc. And its not this is old man’s stuffy corner of the internet, we are able to loosen up and joke around, and genuinely get excited for others when they get something they love. I guess that last part was more of a statement in general than a statement about the article/comparisons.
It’s compatible with like fucking everything which makes it somewhat terrible since there’s so many options you can use lol. The owner tried a fair amount of quality el34 and thought them generally worse than any KT he tried so he didn’t include them for me. My own preferences don’t really favor el34 either so I’m not too sad I didn’t get to test them. It really seems like the more power you push into this output stage, the better it gets. It’s a pretty interesting design
I’ll give you albums instead of tracks. One that does come to mind right away on the APL was a SACD of the Bill Evans Trio - Sunday At The Village Vanguard, I thought it really meshed well with the more intimate live performance and just made it super organic and hard to stop listening to, pretty magical there, the APL tended to really click with jazz for me. What specific genre are you looking for or just like in general?
I know KT77s are a “super” EL34 so i do wonder how they would fair as they are not like the 66s 88s 120s 150s. From what I read I know the 77s seemed to be a favored tube for the Atlantic with that too people seemed to gradually go to the big KTs. (All forum info of course, i dont know anyone who has an atlantic to speak of. Also not trying to compare a horizon vs any atlantic as i would guess at this point they are decently far apart)
Yeah it is interesting, but it’s a pretty entirely different design from what I know so I’m not too surprised. When I get my own at some point I’ll try more tube types, although honestly so satisfied with the tak + TS combo I’ll likely stick with that, might explore all those more middle tubes though
How deep do you get into the actual equipment designs? I know others such as @Polygonhell and @MazeFrame many times dive deep into the “how it works” which is not a surprise as both have some sort of engineering background.
While i like knowing all the things that make something tick, I tend to stay on the medium to high level.
Almost not at all, because I don’t really have the know how to truly understand what’s going on, and I also don’t really care in the end since I’m really only interested in the final result being the sound
I am so close to finishing the article but am really taking my time (mainly as I am enjoying it, and enjoying having something good to read and dont want it to end.)
But i think you convinced me I NEED a Horizon, it just sounds like what i would want in my perfect DAC. BUUUUUT short of that i think you also legitimately convinced me to call in sick on the next rainy day, drag all 1,000lbs of Lampizator GA out of storage, and just give it a go.
I know you differentiated between old and new Lampi, but i hope some “pacific engine lineage”, and the “Golden” upgrades have the GA kicking a little more new style and carrying some traits like the separation i currently crave. But i dont know, and i really wont know until i hobble things together.
Either way i look forward to finishing the read in a day or two but i will leave one criticism…
You got me looking these up and you 100% skipped one thing, and subjectively it may be the most important thing. Color Options. Below is just what lampi offers. No wonder you said it brings you to another dimension, theyre using friggin stardust and black holes!
Colors:
Matt Black Hole
Silver Stardust
Duracell (Black body and copper top)
Mouse Pearl Gray RAL 7048
Yeah this is just me, but I don’t really give a shit what it looks like unless it’s absolutely horrendous to where it’s painful to look at lol, so that’s why I don’t make any attempt at discussing looks or build unless it impacts sound. The one I got in was duracell, and if I did get one it will probably be duracell as well just cause that’s kinda a lampi classic
Just wanted to share something that I thought was interesting. I sent my Abbas 2.3 sig to a friend who was curious and expressed some interest in purchasing. He was using a Denafrips Gaia as his DDC, Hattor as preamp, Dennis HAD 45 as amp, and Ascend acoustics LX as nearfield speakers. He was comparing with his TT2 and here are a few things that he said that kind of blew my mind.
Abbas 2.3 sig is “more accurate but less enjoyable? all the little bits in between notes really stand out. lol. makes imperfections worse. it’s a drastic difference. TT2 seems softer. abbas kind of sparkly. guitar and female vocals pretty neat. hearing more detail with abbas. tt2 a little more comparable in detail when upsampled.”
It really surprised me cause I thought the abbas would lose out to Chord who pride themselves in resolution but maybe my expectations are just off. Based on what I know of my Abbas though, I think the difference in dynamics is playing a part in what he’s experiencing. Abbas is super dynamic which might make it “less enjoyable” if you’re used to the softer sound of TT2.
Anyways, just thought I would share since it’s hard to find detail about Abbas DACs.
That checks out to me, because imo chord has a digital sheen or gloss over their stuff that gives you (sometimes) a lot of resolution, but makes it less offensive and more present than it should be at times, feels more surface level in it’s presentation. It’s an artificial embellishment that has always personally turned me off from a lot of dacs outside of just chord. Don’t really agree with the approach. I would say the chord dacs aren’t actually the most resolving for the price, they are just very forward with their resolution, more than should be, which leaves things sounding unnatural at times
Pretty crazy considering the price difference. I knew Chord tax was a thing but I can almost buy two of my Abbas dacs at the price of one TT2.
I guess one thing that’s good about TT2 then for my friend is that it’s great for his office when he doesn’t want to really listen to the music but have music playing in the background. That’s probably why the lofi tracks on youtube gets millions of views.