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Lyngdorf TDAI-3400

Well, after reading all the rave reviews of the Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 both here and other places, I decided to order a TDAI-3400 for myself.  I must admit I am still skeptical that such a diminutive piece of equipment can sound better than the Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP tube amp weighing more than 50 lbs, but I have been so intrigued by everything I have read I simply had to pull the trigger. 
I just unboxed it today, hooked everything up, and am listening to it for a while before setting up Room Perfect. 
I really want to hear the what the amp sounds like as-is for a bit to understand it better. 
First impressions:  Without Room Perfect it sounds like very nice solid state amps I've owned in the past, but to be honest, I don't find the sound to be particularly moving.  I moved to tubes after years of solid state, and I swore I would never go back.  That is where I'm coming from.  I should also add that I always try to keep an open mind.  While my initial take on it might sound like I don't like it, I hope folks just read this as me being as honest as possible about what I hear.  I know the tendency when buying new gear is to want so badly to love it in order to justify the expense that it's easy to fool oneself into believing it's an improvement over what you had before, even when it's not.  Of course I really want it to be as mind blowing as it has been built up in my mind to be, but if it's not I am OK with simply moving back to what I have liked so far.   
I have only been playing records through it so far.  Analog makes up 98% of my listening so that's where I am starting with it.  I have a nice CD transport that I will connect to it in the next day or so just to hear the DAC in the unit.  I will also experiment with playing files from USB sticks, computer audio from my MacBook Pro, and whatever else I decide.  I am not prepared to purchase a music server just yet, but it's something I have thought about for a while.  
My system:  speakers are Harbeth Monitor 40.1's.  Turntable is an SME 20/2 with SME IV.iv tonearm and Kiseki Purple Heart cartridge, fed to a Parasound JC-3+ phono preamp.  Power conditioner is Audioqest Niagara 7000.  CD transport is a Wadia 8.  
I will report back as I have more time to experiment and let the amp break in.  

128x128snackeyp
essrand
293 posts
 
 @jcarcopop I ordered mine from Neal around the same time.

I think, it was your order he was mentioning while I was going through the process of mine.

Neal has been great so far.

I can't wait to hear the TDAI-3400 in my setup.
aniwolfe
752 posts
 
Youtube review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGLSFt81_-Q
snackeyp's avatar
snackeyp OP
455 posts
 
Interesting video.  Thanks for posting the link.
jcarcopo's avatar
jcarcopo
501 posts
 
@essrand congrats on the tdai-3400. Sorry for the delay, I forgot to follow this thread. Yes Neal is a good guy.  Since buying my unit, I've referred 2 people to him already that have made Lyngdorf purchases as well.

I'm very happy with my TDAI-3400. It's a very smooth, neutral, and natural sounding presentation (maybe with even a slight touch of warmth).  It's a tad less forward and polite sounding than my Benchmark DAC2 HGC/Nord NCORE Class D Monoblock combination, but I feel it's a more accurate portrayal of the music. It posesses excellent detail retrieval, isn't analytical at all, and is non-fatiging to listen to for hours at a time.  Very musical indeed!

The Room Perfect did indeed improve the sound quality by evening out the bass response aswell lifting some congestion and obfuscation in the midrange region

Prior to getting Lyngdorf I typically listened to my Art Audio Diavolo SET tube amplifier primarily and it's also currently connected to the preamp output of the Lyngdorf and to a Luxman AS-55 amplifier switcher so I can enjoy tubes when I'm in the mood or directly to the Lyngdorf's internal Class D amplifier when I'm in a different mood or simply want a change of pace. A best of both worlds approach, if you will, however I may very well end using my tube amplifier less and less since the Lyngdorf is quite good on it's own merits, but it's nice to have options and it's a very versatile piece allowing me to create separate Room Perfect profiles for both amps, which is very handy. 

I really love using the RoonReady and Spotify Connect feature which works adeptly. It was all very easy to setup and configure through the well thought out web interface and I love the Lyngdorf Remote mobile app and even the ability to control the tdai-3400 volume from within Roon's or Spotify's mobile app as well.  Very thoughtfully engineered and nicely executed. Well done! 
evolvist
167 posts
 

You know, I used to have an older model Lyngdorf before it could accept RJ45 as a streamer.

Now that it has streaming capabilities, I went to their site to see what formats it would take, hoping it would go up to at least DSD64. Well, there's no information of what formats you can play via Ethernet cable. Strange.

In fact, on their site it use to have a description of the technology they use to get the D/A conversion, but now it's just a blurb.

Does anyone know what files you can play using their streaming function?

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