I actually think there are a lot of misconceptions about tubes, but will let you know that many of us that switched over to tubes never go back lol
I personally have tubes in all of my electronics now
4 Likes
With something like the aforementioned wa33, while that’s a sweet amp, it is going to be a bigger hassle with tubes, and also very costly. With a more line level component that runs the tubes less hard like the amber or a tube pre, generally it’s less maintenance and they last longer. Also tubes tend to be cheaper, to retube something like the amber it’s going to be fairly inexpensive, for something like the woo it’s going to be quite a lot. You will still have to think about it more than a solid state component, but it’s not as much hassle as you think
1 Like
Another dac that I just saw mentioned in conjunction with the 1266 was the Bricasti M3. Presumably this is a step down from the M1 or M1se but the price is more in the range I’m looking at. Any thoughts on this one?
M3 is a slightly more forward but scaled back m1, and for the prices you can get a used m1 for, I’d rather just say grab a used m1 imo (around 3k ish for a m1, around 5k for a m1se)
1 Like
Any thoughts on the Doge 7 tube dac in comparison to the Amber 3? I heard about the Doge 7 a while ago but haven’t really revisited it just because the price is lower than other things so my first thought is that it won’t be as good. However someone mentioned it on headfi as a dac for the 1266 and my interest is renewed in that dac. Has anyone heard it?
1 Like
I ended up reaching out to the US Lampizator distributor to ask some questions about the Amber 3. They were helpful and actually offered me a discount on a new balanced Amber 3 of almost 700 USD off. I’m not going through with this since I haven’t made up my mind about which dac to get but I was surprised how flexible they were with the price.
I also realized that the Amber 3 has had some significant price increases in the past year from around 3000 USD to just over 4000 USD for the single ended model. It seems that the price increase has something to do with the USD to Euro conversion rate but maybe this is why they were willing to let one go for 700 less than retail.
It worries me a bit when the company is willing to sell it for less than the msrp by a significant amount but all the reviews I’ve seen for the Amber 3 have been positive so it’s definitely still on my short list of dacs to upgrade to.
1 Like
If you can find dealers for a said product, it’s about a 50% chance they will discount it for you. I know for example if you contacted a dealer on abyss or xi stuff, they will typically be flexible with the price and give you a larger than expected discount on gear if you pester them, it’s a somewhat common practice for higher end stuff, so if you can find something you want from a dealer, ask about the price and see what they can do, sometimes you might be surprised (at least I have)
3 Likes
I have bought a couple of things new from dealer at almost at cost in hopes of earning me as a repeat customer. They love their job and hope to keep the doors open
2 Likes
If you came up in the hobby with online sales, a lot of people don’t realize that the average brick and mortar dealer has about 40% of the asking price to play with and they will give you discounts if you push for them.
If you’re looking new, or even if your looking at something where used isn’t a substantial discount ALWAYS ask one or two dealers what price they can do it for. You’ll often be pleasantly surprised.
3 Likes
I mean hell even some dealers online will let you still hassle the price as well if you start an email chain with them or get on a call with them, although it is less common compared to brick and mortar, but still common enough to always justify asking (worst they can say is no)
2 Likes
The place I bought the 1266 from basically just give you a flat good price, it costs them nothing to do it, they just directly fulfill the order from the manufacturer and reduce the cut they would take.
It’s more unusual to see a manufacturer do it for direct sales though. But I guess in this case they are really a distributor.
3 Likes
To clarify, the place I contacted was lampizator.com so I just wasn’t expecting the actual company who makes the dac to discount it.
But, seems like a good thing per the responses on this topic so I will keep it in mind if I do decide to purchase from them as it looks like I do not have to pay msrp.
2 Likes
Lampizator NA is actually a dealer/distributor, the manufacturer site is here I think: https://www.lampizatorpoland.com/
Here is their list of dealers:
And lampizator NA is on there
2 Likes
Oh that makes more sense
1 Like
Hifiman gave me a trade in deal on my Susvara. That surprised me too.
2 Likes
Did your XIAudio gear show up?
Oh yeah! Thanks for asking. They came one at a time…slow torture, lol. The Powerman actually arrived yesterday. Here an awkwardly taken photo as I sit here, lolol:
7 Likes
I’m interested in your take on what effect adding an external PSU can have.
I know I am still always somewhat surprised at just how much impact better power can have, and it’s something I should really have gotten over by now.
2 Likes
I was quite surprised at the impact that it made, to be honest. Was also surprised at the manner in which it made a difference. I suppose it’s probably predictable, but it didn’t change the fundamental character of the amp. It was just a better version of the formula S. Better grip better control better Dynamics - just tightened everything up positive direction. But it was an undeniable and pretty big difference.
I apologize for the sports analogy in advance but imagine an average baseball pitcher, halfway through his career suddenly starts decides to start using steroids and Spider tac. He still the same guy with the same tendencies and strengths and weaknesses…Just much better.
Reading this through I see that I didn’t mention detail but you can probably guess from everything else I have said. Detail increased as well, in fact grip and detail are probably the most dramatic improvements. It’s just a better Formula S.
3 Likes
Yeah I had the same impression of adding the Powerman to the Formula S. I was sort of expecting that improvement based on posts on head-fi but I still was surprised by how much the improvement was.
Do you have any other dacs to compare the Sagra to? I’m still undecided on what dac to buy and there’s not much in the way of reviews out there on the Sagra especially when it comes to comparisons with popular dacs today.
3 Likes