New Lampizator Level 4/ Version 4 DAC in the house

I have been following this thread for months and months. And have re-read it several times. Here are a handful of questions:

1: How do I audition or get an L7 in my home for audition?

2: Pros/cons/experiences of the output tube options in the L7?

3: Lots of talk of the Lampizator transport. Is this a modern day disk spinner or is "transport" used freely to define a storage space of music files? I am pretty much done with dealing with disks.

4: In the many responses here, there were go's and no-go's with using a Mac Mini as the storage vs. a "transport". But the overall feeling here seemed to be that the MM was a well-respected source into the L DAC's. Still true?

5: How is the USB input on the L5-L7 or is it recommended to use the OffRamp devices to go from the source to this and then into the DAC via SPDIF?

6: Is the DSD option truly a no-brainer? And if so, is my entire music library of .wav files useless for this format? .. and do I need the music converted/captured to a whole new format to benefit from this DSD?

John

I just took delivery of the Big L6 tonight and I am going crazy with the clarity, smoothness and delineation! I am in the twin cities if anybody cares to stop by. Only sad thing is I am using a backup Counterpoint NPS 400 amp to drive the Soundlab A1s and not the CAT JL-3s as the system was moved to the living room and I have only one 20-amp circuit here. So I need an electrician!
John

Yes, I moved faster than the Flash to get the L6. Gosh I love this unit. Wow!

And I will not part with the SL speakers. I have optimized the system around these. I just need to get the amps back online. But last night the lowly Counterpoint amp did its backup duty to show the pure magic of the L6.

Right out of the box, the L6's resolution and tonality was exceptional except for one thing .."where's the bass?" I was thinking the Counterpoint was just not able to do it. And yet this was not a problem with the Manley Ref DAC or APL Denon player. And then an hour l realized the bass had arrived and everything had become silky smooth. This unit so rapidly made me forget about the system and got me into the musical enjoyment.

It clearly takes the L6 an hour or so to warm up and I was just too impatient to wait this required time to listen before powering on a cold unit. Being a tubeaholic for 30+ years, I knew better. But I just could not wait to hear this. I will keep the unit powered on all the time now.

Grannyring and Lissnr: Thank you for the support and encouragement. "Natural presentation" is indeed the best description so far.

A temptation as a tube-roller is to try other tubes but the result here with the stock tubes is truly wonderful. This is not the typical purchase of a line stage or phono stage loaded with crappy Sovtek or EH tubes that immediately need to be changed. But it has been suggested that I try another tube type for the audio stage. So I will try that out next week when it arrives and report back.

My experience with Counterpoint/Aria products has been that the Rectifier tube has a major influence on the performance. So one day when I am truly without anything to do, I will look into trying other rectifier tubes on the L6 as well. But this unit really does not have me itchy to try other tubes like virtually every other tube product has in the past. It's great to get something magical right out of the box.

Albert Porter is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable members here on phono setup, tube electronics and tube rolling, electrostatic speakers, and cabling. He taught me so much through the mid 2000s which along with JD of Jade Audio, took my system to a level far beyond what it had been before.

I finally compared the "stock" Sylvania VT-99 tubes with a pair of National Union VT-99 tubes. The NU tubes are far more dynamic, lively, spatial compared to the Sylvania having a rather dark and somewhat flat presentation. Three hours with the Sylvania was all I could handle after hearing the far more exciting NU tubes. If you're running an L6 with the Sylvania tubes, you are missing so much magic that comes with using the NU tubes.

Perhaps the Raytheon or Tung-Sol VT-99's might bring on further magic, but the NU VT-99's for now are outstanding. It is easy to sit here for hours and hours and listen to music I have heard for 10-20 years, mostly on LPs and hear so much new detail. Now that's saying a lot!

F1a: I believe the sylvania VT-99 are are the favorite tube from Lukasz. Trying other brands of this tube type seems to make sense. I will try a Raytheon and Tung Sol soon as well and report back. Then perhaps a few 6SN7 and try the rectifier tubes too!

Waltersalas: Yes, for the moment I run the Mac Mini straight into the L6 with a Vue VU-3 USB cable.

http://www.vuedigitalcables.com/product/vue-cables-vu-3-audiophile-usb-cable/

I have an older Empirical Audio Offramp but it only has AES output. I would be curious as to any benefit of a state-of-the-art USB converter to SPDIF, but for now the L6 sound is magic. And using the one USB cable makes it easy for DSP once I start to buy such recordings.

Agear: I was a contractor for Guidant 10 years ago and then it got gobbled up by Bos Sci. Then I worked for Cameron Health, a very specialized defibrillator made in San Clemente, CA, but we too were gobbled up by Bos Sci. So I am back to the twin cities.

sound like a typical tube product - i.e. thick & textured, focusing more midrange than frequency extension?

This was the "typical" tube sound of the 1980s .not at all of today's top-perfoming tube products.

And no, the Lampi B6 has extension and clarity in the top octaves that is quite impressive .qualities that I have heard many SS DACs not come close to matching. As for the bass, there is plenty of presence and weight in the bass without the "need" for blaring bottom octave output.

Gopher, thanks for the tip. So far my favorite rectifier for the Lampi is the RCA. I will look for the Kenred.