LampizatOr, Tobian Soundsystems, VAC, Final Touch Audio, Destination Sound Group

Florida Audio Expo 2022

If you, like me, thought that LampizatOr was fully realized with their Pacific DAC representing a superior flagship offering you and I were both wrong. Furthermore, it was LampizatOr themselves who also thought they were done, ready to rest of the laurels donned upon the Pacific DAC.

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The Story

The NEW Horizon DAC from Lampizator is not a batch of incrementally improved versions of the Pacific DAC. It is instead something completely new, that now helms the ship for ultimate DAC fidelity from Lampizator.

Sound quality is pushed to the absolute limit with this design, using several proprietary technologies. Features include high quality volume control and bypass. CNC milled aluminum chassis, copper capacitors, silver wiring, gold contacts (Al, Cu, Au, Ag: for those keeping score at home. Bingo yet?)

FLAX 2022 show coverage is powered by our friends at Well Pleased A/V

The new Horizon DAC uses zero op-amps, zero transistors, and outputs pure resistor conversion through a pure tube output. Don’t forget, hundreds of tube rolling combinations. Everything about this new DAC reads like ‘we’re going back to the drawing board on all we know.’

Also along for the ride, wait… that’s not fair.

For a DAC as special as the new Horizon, it would take some serious kit to allow the best attributes and improvements of this new design some room to shine. Enter the greatest integrated amplifier we’ve heard — the VAC Statement 450i iQ Integrated Amplifier — essentially VAC’s greatest separates combined in one box, or better yet tower, to deliver both the beauty and the beast in terms of electronic amplifying.

At the end of the signal, a pair of handmade Tobian Soundsystems 12FH loudspeakers from Switzerland. Featuring a 12-inch woofer, and 4-inch titanium (Ti: bingo yet?) diaphragm mid-high compression driver, loaded in a two-way configuration, with a simple pair of binding posts out back. Super simple.

The Sound

Have you ever run across an excellent small system with really esoteric components and thought to yourself, this could be my desert island system? Well, that’s what happened to me, and I wasn’t expecting any of it. Yes, to several VAC components, and maybe a yes too for LampizatOr inhabiting some of my past and recent audiophile dream systems, but this combo — didn’t see it coming.

What struck me wild is the coherence, balance, and dynamics of the Tobian Soundsystems 12FH loudspeakers. Yes, being attached to the ultimate force in VAC’s offering helps, but the ability of the speakers to woo me in these few moments was unheard of. What was heard was detail and tonality galore.

The aforementioned components would have clued me in to something funky or lackluster happening upstream, and their report was nothing of the sort. The new Horizon DAC was giving me top-shelf analog vibes. Causing me to shake my head and reconsider some of my prejudices against digital being as enjoyable as analog at the end of the day.

Dave McNair not only needs to hear this new Horizon DAC, I think he needs to review it. We shall see.