Just in: Lampizator Baltic-3 DAC

Ah, okay, the fact there was a "silent rev" is probably why I don't know about it. LOL.
FWIW, mine has a C in front of the Serial Number so I am not sure if that's helpful. Mine was upgraded to a Gen 5 USB back in 2017, but I have yet to do the Unison upgrade (actually this would be a good time to do it as the Lampi is in-house...)

 

I'm still running in caps and tubes on the Baltic-3, but it is proving to be just an outstanding DAC; one of the best I've heard. A friend has sent some different rectifier tubes to try out, EML 5U4G and 274B, and the EML 5U4G is still running in, so things are changing day by day.

Some first impressions, though: excellent orchestral soundstaging, instrumental imaging precision and placement. Individual instruments in the soundstage have very precise and stable placement and "body." The ability to resolve individual instruments within a couplex soundstage is exceptional. Referencing Gungnir MB Gen 5, which is comparable tonally, the Baltic-3s soundstage and imaging is much more 3-dimensional; Gungnir Multibit's soundstage is as if you were sitting in the audience, 15 rows back from the orchestra, and the Baltic-3 is much more as if you're on-stage with the orchestra. Moreover, the soundstage has greater depth, breadth and height than Gungnir Multibit. It's also very, very quiet, seemingly quieter than Gungnir Multibit, but this is strictly subjective as I don't have any test equipment. The Baltic-3 is also very neutral with exceptional tonal and pitch accuracy of instrumental and vocal timbres and the body, weight, warmth, and richness of real music. The weight and power of a concert grand piano being in the room with you is much more lifelike, for example (listen to Yeol Eum Son's performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, for example). Gungnir Multibit by comparson, while tonally similar, doesn't have these attributes to the same degree; it sounds thinner, more 2-dimensional, and more spare; less lifelike. Resolution, definition, instrumental articulation, and inner detail are superb, yet natural-sounding; not overly spare or analytical as some gear with very high definition can be.

Just a close-up pic with the mesh-plate EML 5U4G installed the as the rectifier. I'll be trying the EML 274B next.

 

Could you please mention those other DACs? Comparing this DAC with Gungnir is not really fair because of huge price difference and tubes (which might increase the price a lot).

I would personally like to hear how it is better (or worse) than Yggdrasil.

 

I don't have an Yggdrasil to compare to, so I can't comment on that. I'm comparing it to Gungnir MB Gen 5 because that is what I own and have in house.

The other DACs I've been most impressed by were the Wavelength Crimson with silver-wound transformers, the MSB Analog DAC, EMM Labs DAC2X, and the Playback Designs MPD-5; however, as I do not of any of these on hand to compare to directly, any comments about these would be anecdotal.

 

Nice photos, no hostility from me but I'm always skeptical when a new Megabucks component is praised to the sky ( by anyone)

Can you link me to a negative review from you about anything over €500? If you don't do negative reviews that's perfectly understandable but it would be good to know.

Any hostility you encounter is driven by a desire to prevent SBAF from becoming like any number of audiophile sites singing the praises of everything. The more expensive and exotic the component, the more flowery the prose. So nothing personal

 

I've only written three product reviews that have been published to date; those were excellent products, and I described their performance accuately. The other article was a technical one on using optical fiber for digital streaming.And two of them were for products I had actually purchased for used in my own system before my Editor requested that I review them.

I write and report accurately on what I hear, and my Editor has never told me what to write. To date I've not been assigned to write reviews for products that I didn't enjoy, but I don't have any "issue" writing accurately about products that do not sound good, nor provide enjoyable experiences; e.g., when I heard a system with Spectral amps driving Wilson Alexandria IIIs, which was GHASTLY. If I had written a review of that system, it would not have been positive. Come to think of it, there have been some Audio Note systems that have driven me from the room in a manner of minutes, as well. I didn't stay around long enough to determine what the specific omponents were. Aack!!

 

Thanks for the review.

Lampizator really knows his stuff.
I wish i could get my hands on one.

My only suggestion, would be for a bit more in-depth description of the inner workings, accompanied with some photos with the top removed, showing off the 'naked' unit in all its tube glory.

If you can still do it, i am sure a lot of us would just love to have a peep.

 

you’re right. I think you hit on the reaction here. Not having “friend” status literally means people here don’t know exactly where you’re coming from yet. So seeing this post they assumed the worst. Purr1n could post something similar and get away with it because everyone knows a lot about where he’s coming from. Probably as well as can be with a medium like this. They would know that content was coming. He probably wouldn’t have posted the high rez statistics so seriously but whatever if your intentions are good people will come around. Seems like they are. But maybe next time wait till you have more to say until people have a sense of who you are. Or just f**k it and ignore the dislikes if your intentions are on target.

oh and it sounds like it’s maybe another cool DAC I could never afford.

 

There’s a lot of SBAFers in the Bay Area who would surely love to hear this. Can we set up a loaner tour when you’re done with it?

 

I'd love to be able to do that, but the DAC is a loaner by the Distributor for reviews, and will have to go back to the USA distributor after the review period. If it were my own personal property, I wouldn't have an issue with it.
Actually, as you're in the Bay Area, what I'd enjoy is for you or other Bay Area SBAF members to come by and hear it at my home, first-hand. That would be a solution that would be workable. And folks could bring their own DACs for a comparision. And, you could also check out my optical fiber-based digital streaming solution I've implemented. If it weren't for this dang pandemic situation, that would be a lot of fun.

Normally, I would have done that, but unlike the Soekris, the Baltic-3 is a tube DAC and has copper capacitors, and things would have been changing fairly considerably over the first few weeks with the tubes running in and the caps forming, so posting any more in-depth impressions in the first hour would have been inaccurate, which is why I waited a bit for the follow-up post.

With respect to comparing to other DACs, I only have a Schiit Gungnir Multibit on-hand to compare to. If I had four other DACs to compare to, I'd be more than happy to do that. I'd love to know, for example, how the Baltic-3 compares to Yggdrasil or the new Soekris. But, I only have a Gungnir Multibit here as another DAC, and its been my only DAC since 2013 (I go WAY back with Schiit products).

Because I'm a reviewer for a mag, I have access to some gear that normally may not be accessible for evaluation. I can post my impressions, reviews and experiences with that gear if you guys will find it helpful. If not, just let me know and I won't post any more about components I get in for review.

 

You could always fly it by the distributor. The way I see it acceptance from a group that generally has no qualms about crapping on bad gear is high praise (provided it passes muster of course).

Anyway now that I've gone and posted already I wanna add my thanks for the impressions, even if I'll never realistically get ears on this.

 

ok. But no one would attack you if you did do something like this because content would be coming. I definitely appreciate your commitment to quality no BS reviews.

 

I'd love to provide a more in-depth description of the design brief that LampizatOr has for the DAC. I can look into arranging an interview with the designer about his goals and objectives for the Baltic-3.

With respect to removing the top, that's a strict no-no, the chassis is sealed with a No-Tamper sticker. Even if there were no sticker, removing the top would be difficult, it looks like it would require also removing the front panel as well, and I'm not about to risk removing or damaging a machined front panel for an expensive DAC I don't own.

 

Doesn't surprise me that he doesn't want the top off. Last time I saw inside a Lampizator dac, it looked like a breadboard build.

 

Yeah, can't say I blame Lampizator with respect to safety considerations with the voltages associated with tubes and especially with tubes that are rectifiers for power supplies. And, I'm certainly not to take apart products that were sent to me for review.

 

Ahhh.. i see.
If it is sealed, then by no means you'd be allowed to do that.

That is a shame though, since nudies of that wonderful DAC would make a lot of people happy.
I'm pretty sure that the crowd of people mostly appreciative of lampizator's approach, are especially fond of it.

He has documented a lot of his work and previous trials with nice pictures and i think it'd be very fitting to show off the insides of his work more.

 

That is normal approach, in fact it's attractive for people into that kind of DIY business.

The view of an 100% SMD board that is assembled in a line is not so much.

 

You've come this far. Really no need for threats to "take your ball and go home".

That said, I'd be curious to see what other stuff you will review in the future.

 

Nah, just wanted the content to be viewed as helpful and informative as well as aligned with the community's interests, i.e., as signal and not noise.

If folks were interested, I was also thinking of putting up a thread on how to set up an optical fiber-based streaming setup for their digital front-ends.