LampizatOr Genya DAC Review

[Nikhil]

A derivative of the Horizon DAC which had to be discontinued when the proprietory DAC chip was no longer available, Lampizator has launched the Genya DAC based on the inventory of parts that came back in from owners who upgraded their Horizon's to the Horizon360. As a result only 40 units will be made based on the number of H99 boards that were extracted from the first generation Horizon.

LampizatOr Genya [UPDATE] – HiFi Knights

This is the www.hifiknights.com review of LampizatOr Genya DAC. Author: Dawid Grzyb. Enjoy!

hifiknights.com

" ... during his visit to Ukraine’s city of Lviv in 1995, Łukasz met a local tube guru Evgennyi Kreminski who passed away in 2013 due to cancer. He specialized in push-pull designs based on 6C33C “devil” triodes and authored hundreds of schematics for them over the years. Łukasz saw in Evgennyi a dear friend and mentor who taught him everything he knew about tubes. Today’s Genya DAC was made to commemorate the Ukrainian sifu and his last tube stage that hasn’t yet been used in any previous LampizatOr design. The number of H99 boards extracted from 1st-gen Horizons including servicing spares effectively limits this affair to 40 units. Should you wonder about its name, it is the diminutive of Evgennyi. "


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[essrand]

Thanks for the link. Been eyeing this DAC for a few weeks now

 

[RajuP]

I am using the LAMPIZATOR PACIFIC DAC. It is phenomenal to say the least.

 

[reignofchaos]

Not sure of this one but I am not a fan so far of lampizator. The three I have heard - Baltic, Atlantic and an original Level 3 had major timing problems. Things sound slow. The snap and attack of instruments while not blurred, comes later than expected. Have not heard this issue from tube DACs of other brands like AN, AMR or even cheaper ones like MHDT and the likes.

Maybe the higher end ones don't suffer from this issue but it is very very audible in all the lampis I have heard so far. Anyone else noticed this?

 

[sidvee]

Not sure of this one but I am not a fan so far of lampizator. The three I have heard - Baltic, Atlantic and an original Level 3 had major timing problems. Things sound slow. The snap and attack of instruments while not blurred, comes later than expected. Have not heard this issue from tube DACs of other brands like AN, AMR or even cheaper ones like MHDT and the likes.

Maybe the higher end ones don't suffer from this issue but it is very very audible in all the lampis I have heard so far. Anyone else noticed this?

Never experienced that, have heard 5 of their models and own the Baltic 3. Along with the Baltic 3, I have 2 other DAC's in the same system so even in under direct comparison I haven't heard this.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Kannan]

While living abroad I had the opportunity to hear a TDA1541A customised by Lukasz and one Behringer 2496 with the Lampizator tweak.
Both sounded excellent, but were definitely adding their own colouration, especially in the mids. Since there was an option to bypass in the 2496, I personally preferred the 2496 without the tube effect. There is some bias here from my end as I inherently don't prefer a valve-based sound charater.

 

[sidvee]

New DAC launched - the Aphrodite

Aphrodite DAC

Lampizator - digital converter with vacuum tubes

www.lampizatorpoland.com

Lot of excitement over this DAC!
I can never afford one, but very happy with my Baltic 3.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[krishnan.s]

Is this available in India or should be a direct import? Any suggestions?
Thank you!

 

[sidvee]

Is this available in India or should be a direct import? Any suggestions?
Thank you!

Goldfinch acoustics in Bangalore was the Lampizator India dealer a few years ago. Not sure if they are still around.

Thread 'Goldfinch Acoustics launches brand new website'

Nov 10, 2020

We are happy to announce the launch of our brand new website. We welcome you to checkout our new website here www.goldfinchacoustics.com

Cheers
Team- Goldfinch

• Goldfinch Acoustics

• 

Cheers,
Sid

 

[Nikhil]

New DAC launched - the Aphrodite

Aphrodite DAC

Lampizator - digital converter with vacuum tubes

www.lampizatorpoland.com

Lot of excitement over this DAC!
I can never afford one, but very happy with my Baltic 3.
Cheers,
Sid

Lampizator picked up some negative comments on the price on their Facebook group.
Luk has been pushing prices up quite a bit - the Aphrodite is listed at 88K Euro!


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[reignofchaos]

Goldfinch acoustics in Bangalore was the Lampizator India dealer a few years ago. Not sure if they are still around.

Thread 'Goldfinch Acoustics launches brand new website'

Nov 10, 2020

We are happy to announce the launch of our brand new website. We welcome you to checkout our new website here www.goldfinchacoustics.com

Cheers
Team- Goldfinch

• Goldfinch Acoustics

• 

Cheers,
Sid

Don't think they exist anymore

 

[sidvee]

Lampizator picked up some negative comments on the price on their Facebook group.
Luk has been pushing prices up quite a bit - the Aphrodite is listed at 88K Euro!


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I think he is competing with the likes of MSB Sentinel - $375,000, DCS Varese $267,000 etc. compared to which, this is a bargain.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[reignofchaos]

I think he is competing with the likes of MSB Sentinel - $375,000, DCS Varese $267,000 etc. compared to which, this is a bargain.
Cheers,
Sid

Lucasz thinks he is. Whether it is or not - no one knows unless they audition both.

Whether the sound is the same league or not, that casework and fit/finish doesn't deserve 88,000. Thousand dollars DACs are better finished.

 

[sidvee]

Lucasz thinks he is. Whether it is or not - no one knows unless they audition both.

Whether the sound is the same league or not, that casework and fit/finish doesn't deserve 88,000. Thousand dollars DACs are better finished.

He is highly regarded in forum's like WBF etc. where people routinely spend upwards of $1/2 to $1 million for their systems - and these are not reviewers - just users - who use their systems to listen - there was an audition in Socal recently- where I heard that about 10 units were booked - after the audition mind you, so they definitely saw the DAC. I am pretty sure they know what a $1000 DAC finish is vs whatever is on offer from Lampi. No point speculating without having seen it live.
And adding to that point of price increases, there was a ton of criticism for MSB when they moved on from their older chassis to the newer one (after having said that all their models will be retrofittable - instantly rendering $50k dacs to less than half their value on audiogon etc) - just so that they could introduce a newer chassis model at much higher $$$, not to mention DCS trying to sue a reviewer when he gave a bad review on their DAC's value and settling with him after a ton of furore on and offline.
Lastly I would like to add that I am no Lampi - fanboy, I cannot afford anything above $10k on a good day, so I am limited to what I can hear in that range and what I heard from the Baltic 3 blew away all the ones I heard and had in that range. If one feels that it is not worth it and it doesn't sound good with serious shortcomings, so be it - I cannot argue on a subjective opinion. I also own a Sabaj $400 DAC, which I think is superb.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[Nikhil]

I think he is competing with the likes of MSB Sentinel - $375,000, DCS Varese $267,000 etc. compared to which, this is a bargain.
Cheers,
Sid

True ... like you said those uber DACs make the Aphrodite price look like a bargain.

I have been a huge lukasz / Lampizator fan from back when he was hacking hardware in his spare time.
When he made his name with his exposés of high end digital gear of those times we cheered him on.
To see him now become a part of the same high end / cost no object fraternity is interesting.

But to his credit he has earned every penny. He doesn't owe anybody an apology.
The guy built the brand from scratch into a serious contender against some very stiff competition.
Like you I have serious respect for Lampi gear in general. I just can't afford most of their gear now.


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[square_wave]

Not sure of this one but I am not a fan so far of lampizator. The three I have heard - Baltic, Atlantic and an original Level 3 had major timing problems. Things sound slow. The snap and attack of instruments while not blurred, comes later than expected. Have not heard this issue from tube DACs of other brands like AN, AMR or even cheaper ones like MHDT and the likes.

Maybe the higher end ones don't suffer from this issue but it is very very audible in all the lampis I have heard so far. Anyone else noticed this?

Quick question, did you hear this in your own system ? And compared it to your existing dac ? The lampi guy has been doing this for so many years now and I was thinking how such a thing can happen.

 

[reignofchaos]

Quick question, did you hear this in your own system ? And compared it to your existing dac ? The lampi guy has been doing this for so many years now and I was thinking how such a thing can happen.

Baltic in my system - was on overnight demo from a dealer
Atlantic in a friend's system - where i heard my T+A a week or two ago and everything sounded great. The Atlantic was an absolute disappointment for me.
Level 3 was Abhi's dac which he wanted to dispose after hearing for 2 weeks. This I had with me for over 3-4 days.

The fit and finish was meh on all three and they look and feel like they are made in a shed. Sound I've mentioned earlier.

 

[muralimmreddy]

I ended up owning big7 r2r dac. Had hugo tt2 prior to that, to me tt2 timing timbre was way better. Lampizator is coloured dac IMO. Use of DHT tubes as buffer is questionable except for exotic feel and adding desired color. Read its voiced to sound vinyl like what ever it means. Its r2r are not even true nos and has that purity.

For a boutique company there isn’t a clear, coherent, or consistent design philosophy that ties its product line together technically. Too many variations.

 

[sidvee]

Quick question, did you hear this in your own system ? And compared it to your existing dac ? The lampi guy has been doing this for so many years now and I was thinking how such a thing can happen.

Same here. Lampi has a distributor in North America, and as such they have a huge user base there - far exceeding many other mainstream European brands. Never once I heard of this issue from anyone - for what seems to be glaring issue. Plus they are very conscious of the fit and finish there, and again that never seems to be the issue in buying these units there, when they have access to many multiple options. Anyways like I stated before, one cannot argue with subjective opinions - take them for what they are.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[sidvee]

True ... like you said those uber DACs make the Aphrodite price look like a bargain.

I have been a huge lukasz / Lampizator fan from back when he was hacking hardware in his spare time.
When he made his name with his exposés of high end digital gear of those times we cheered him on.
To see him now become a part of the same high end / cost no object fraternity is interesting.

But to his credit he has earned every penny. He doesn't owe anybody an apology.
The guy built the brand from scratch into a serious contender against some very stiff competition.
Like you I have serious respect for Lampi gear in general. I just can't afford most of their gear now.


.

It is a similar progression for many companies. I used to own a MSB Link Dac III in early 2000's bought for a net total of $400. The fit and finish of this DAC was just basic with painted on lettering which would fade over time, but the sound that it made was glorious. And now I think their entry level units start at $10,000, right at the border of my affordability.

MSB Link DAC III D/A converter Specifications | Stereophile.com

Sidebar 1: Specifications Link DAC III D/A converter: Solid-state D/A processor with S/PDIF coax and S/PDIF TosLink digital inputs (AES/EBU input with Full Nelson Upgrade), one pair analog bypass inputs, 8x-oversampling digital filter, and 24-bit D/A converter. Sampling rates: 32, 44.1, 48...

www.stereophile.com

Cheers,
Sid