MHDT Orchid or Lampizator Amber 3?

@transcience

Pitting the Amber 3 against the Atlantic TRP and Sonnet Morpheus recently, I have to declare the Amber fully competitive with both. Perhaps absent a little extension at the extremes relative to the TRP but the midband is at least as informative and seductive, if not mores

This is really interesting considering the $5K price difference between the balanced versions of both Lampizator DACs. In your opinion is the Atlantic TRP not worth the extra price over the Amber 3?

Sorry I just saw your post on the Amber 3. I ended up selling the Amber 3. It is a very good dac, but in the end just not for me. The longer I had it the more I found myself dissatisfied with my system. I found myself listening to music less and getting caught up with sound. I focused on its sonic feats of strength, but was unable to relax into the music. Sound over music. 

The Amber checks off all the right audiophile sonic attributes in terms of individual sonic attributes like bass impact, top end extension, resolution, vividness etc... it was all there. However, it never sounded completely right in my rig. Impressive at first, but over time it just did not connect me to my music.

Over time I found it lacked top to bottom cohesiveness with the upper mids being too present and vivid. Too much of a good thing that I started to find distracting.

In the end the upgraded Orchid was more enjoyable for me. I now own the Mojo Audio Mystique and love it. It is a very special dac that connects me to my music and brings full contentment.

Hope this helps.

@grannyring would you say Orchid without the upgrade is a no brainer vs. the Mystique? Because it is seven times more expensive than the Orchid:) 

So from what I understand from an earlier post here, the Orchid can only output 16/44. I use Qobuz and Tidal (don't care too much about MQA though) and wondering if it's better to go with Pagoda. Has anyone compared the two when streaming 24 bit files? Is it worth the extra cost?

Hi, this is a great thread, although older, and I hope some of might respond. I am wondering if anybody has compared Audio Mirror, Orchid, Amber 3 to a Terminator or Holo May. Seems the May and Terminator are pretty similar sounding, wondering if anyone could compare to the tube dacs? Thanks so much