Lampizator Horizon DAC Announced

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by ogodei, Nov 28, 2021.

  1. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    Grapevine here in Europe says it will be around 52k€.
     
  2. Beefy

    Beefy Friend

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    LOL, no, not even if I was a billionaire.
     
  3. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    To be fair... if you were a billionaire this would be what you use as a doorstop.
     
  4. Beefy

    Beefy Friend

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    I'd still probably use a dirty shoe.

    I mean seriously, €52k into USD would be enough to buy you (furious googling) an entry level Porsche Cayman. No matter how hard I try, I simply can't fathom this DAC ever making sense.
     
  5. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Driving your Porsche Cayman into your oversized billionaire house to use as a doorstop is a baller move though.
     
  6. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Ride that baby in and put a diamond encrusted car boot on it.
     
  7. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    I just wonder if they are still using a breadboard in a "finished" product.
     
  8. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    I ran the start of the press release through GPT-3 and assembled the highlights. Think it nailed it.

    Key highlights include:
    • Proprietary, firmware driven conversion process with 760kHz PCM and DSD512.
    • No silicon anywhere in the signal path.
    • Silver wiring inside.
    • Circuit boards with solder balls.
    • Gas discharge to ionosphere to increase bandwidth above 20kHz.
    • Fastidious attention to diaphragm physics.
    • "f**k Silicon" Digital Technology.
    • Black plated for stability and silence.
    Synergy of 3 technologies, the most advanced of their form: silver wire inlay, wood top and base, and voice of God, a personal amplifier capable of extracting a maximum of performance from the most delicate and finest of works, or the most bombastic and massive of music, or speeches. And all of this relatively inexpensive, although high performance, and offering freedom from the limitations of the transistor and the exhaust valve, and keeping the beauty of the human voice in all its varieties, ensuring faithful reproduction of the greatest music and the highest opera.

    The process for building our digital-to-analog converter modules is proprietary and involves techniques we've been researching and developing for many years. We do not use analog output circuitry of any kind. There are no feedback loops in the signal path, no temperature drift, no settling time, and no aliasing. Nothing. You hear the original digitally recorded sound (from an analog source, played back through the modules), and that's it. We never add nor take anything away; we simply pass the recorded sound through a consistently transposed and filtered transformation process. Our technicians manually set every level and check every detail of every step in this complicated program of micro-adjustment. Not one false note. Our relationship with time and time's relationship to us changes; our sense of self and time's sense of self dissolve; we become pure awareness, vast and still, free of personality or past. We hear the music. The music is the meaning, and the meaning is the music. And the music is eternity.

    The SigmaTel is available in 3 models to suit all budgets:

    MSI-Super-CDI has the best sound. $36,995.
    MSI-Dominator-CDI is always the best choice if we want to keep the price to $35,995.
    MSI-Dominator-CDI+ used to be the only choice, but prices have dropped to $34,995.

    We now offer a high resolution choice, CDI-Bolero, which uses 4 Arasans and costs only another $36,995.

    CDI-Bolero is built to last 10,000 years with the same technology that led to the techno-fix for global warming and the flywheel energy storage system with indestructible flywheels.

    All CDIs use exclusively domestic U.S.A. labour and materials. Most components are made here in Silicon Valley. This is a domestic project which the Obama administration is trying to sabotage.
     
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  9. Beefy

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    I didn't fully comprehend what this post was, and didn't tweak that it was even 'wrong' until the Obama quote. Deep learning is basically high level satire.
     
  10. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    Interested in what the no silicon in the signal path really means I visited the thread in the other forum, price is officially 49 k$ without VAT or sales tax. People getting their knickers in a twist about the new tube rolling possibilities. If I had the Clash‘s bullshit detector in my garage it would have rang all the time I was reading that stuff.
    If I got the little technical information right signal path is meant to be analog signal path. I have a deal with my girlfriend if ever I contemplate spending 50 k€ on a single piece of gear or more than 500 € on a cable she has the right to get me to a vet and have me put down, so that there will be enough money around for our son to get a proper education, of course this doesn’t apply to people who can afford both (spending silly money on audio gear and proper education for the kids) at the same time.
     
  11. Polygonhell

    Polygonhell Acquaintance

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    If I had to guess it's probably just a transition back to an R2R based DAC, the Pacific uses a DSD chip which actually sounded obviously better than the R2R ladder they used in the GG 1, the output stage has always been all tube, though they have some autosensing thing in there that adjusts heater voltage based on what you plug in.

    There are maybe 10 or so more expensive DAC's you can buy, complete MSB Stack, Total DAC offerings, SW1X Dac 5 and X etc.

    These are statement pieces, the ones I've heard all sound really good. but your in silly money territory.

    The Lampizator GG on the other hand is priced used at about what a Chord Dave runs used, and to my ear it's a pretty easy choice as to which one I'd take and it wouldn't be the Chord.
    And while the Amber 3 isn't the most resolving DAC at it's price point, but it does sound incredibly natural.
     
  12. Beefy

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    Most discrete R-2R DACs still use a high speed semiconductor switch to pass voltage onto/down the ladder. I'd be really interested to see how their architecture avoids this.
     
  13. Polygonhell

    Polygonhell Acquaintance

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    You could certainly argue that in a traditional R/2R ladder the switches aren't in the audio path, something has to latch the input signal. The inputs are all switched at the inputs to the ladder....

    [​IMG]

    I wouldn't read much more than marketing Jargon into it.
     
  14. Beefy

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    Well yeah, in that arrangement, a(0) to a(n-1) are connected to a voltage source through semiconductor switches. Definitely silicon in there. If this is this case, the distinction between silicon before the ladder and after the ladder as being in the signal path is pretty hazy.

    I guess I just don't understand why 'no silicon' is such an important marketing spiel to make. Say 'all-tube output stage', and nobody can argue.
     
  15. murray

    murray Friend

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    And where does the current come from, to feed each of those resistors, hmm?
    (Edit: posted simultaneously as @Beefy )
     
  16. Polygonhell

    Polygonhell Acquaintance

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    I'm not trying to defend the claim, it's marketing.
    Sure there has to be a Digital component, to latch the bits to something, it's a D to A converter it has digital bits, the question becomes at what point do you consider the audio path starting.
    I was just trying to interpret what it might mean vs the existing designs.
     
  17. Senorx12562

    Senorx12562 Case of the mondays

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    Even the most outlandish claims (and ironically, it seems sometimes especially those) will be believed by a certain % of the target. The lower the take rate, the higher the margin has to be. Voila. Not to say I know anything other than what appears in this thread about this particular dac or its value proposition, because I do not.
     
  18. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    That's the stuff for people who already have fancy cars and large houses ;)
     
  19. MaxBuck

    MaxBuck New

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    LOL.
     
  20. eskamobob1

    eskamobob1 Acquaintance

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    Bruh. I skimmed the first sentence of the post and read the entire thing thinking it was real. Was legit about to make an angry post about marketing jargon bullshit for a dac maker that seem pretty damn well liked even without it. Glad your comment made me look at it again first....
     

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