Those of you following along will no doubt recall my wild, wide-eyed, heart-thumping, endorsement of the LampizatOr DAC. It was a helluva machine and I still get chills thinking about it.
That DAC, a “Generation 3 Level 4” version, has since been replaced with thoroughly upgraded technology. LampizatOr, for those of you noobs out there, means (roughly) “to add vacuum tubes to”, and designer Lukasz Fikus has been en-tube-enating electronics for decades.
So, what’s new?
A DSD DAC, now from LampizatOr.
Note that this is a DSD-only DAC. Interesting, no? DSD — and only DSD. PCM can go get it’s own DAC.
There’s a reason for this, of course. Here’s what Lukasz has to say about the need for space:
Due to huge difference between PCM and DSD process we feel it is too big of a compromise to put both systems in one box. The power supply requirements, computer connectivity, tube arrangements – are all different. Plus the DSD dac tends to pollute the surrounding environment of the box far too much for the good old PCM to tolerate…The DSD DAC is fully optimized for one thing and one thing only – to play the DSD music in its full beauty.
This is a USB-only device and supports DSD64 and DSD128.
Price is $3,000 Euros. More information can be found here.
