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Lampizator in a box

post #1 of 19
1/18/10 at 11:07am
Thread Starter 
Many have probably stumbled upon Lukasz Fikus' Lampizator, the guy strikes me as a cross between Patrick and Ti Kan (no disrepect to any parties).

Reading through his pages, he of course rates his work very highly, which peaked my interests. Trying to find objective opinions was hard but when I did find them they had similar sentiments questioning how one tube circuit could be a one-fix-for-all solution.

Regardless of this I've always thought it'd be interesting to build his output stage in a box (like his test box) that could be temporarily attached to the corresponding parts in various candidates.

It would require a few variable resistor positions and the ability to (literally) bypass the input caps but I think it's a very interesting prospect.

Anyone agree, had any experience with something along these lines or have a reason to not bother?

Documentation: here under the heading of LAMPIZATOR tutorial VER 2.0 (new circuits, new tubes, new ideas)
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post #2 of 19
1/18/10 at 1:19pm
I think he goes overboard. some ideas make sense but he takes himself too seriously. (most 'audiophiles' do, fwiw).

if he presented test graphs of before/after I'd be willing to believe a LOT more of what he asserts. but he has no data (that I've seen) and so its just his word about his own mods. yawn...

last time I looked it was just replacing stock components with boutique ones. nothing really about circuit redesign or anything serious like that.

just not impressed, sorry.
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post #3 of 19
1/18/10 at 1:23pm
His SRPP stage is about the last tube stage I would use in a DAC or CDP.
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post #4 of 19
1/18/10 at 2:17pm
its odd isnt it that this circuit has beome so popular.

too much gain
too much distortion
high output impedance

yet so many people love it. I wont judge until i have heard one, but like you it wouldnt be my first approach.
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post #5 of 19
1/18/10 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mattcalf View Post
Many have probably stumbled upon Lukasz Fikus' , the guy strikes me as a cross between Patrick and Ti Kan (no disrepect to any parties).
Not much Ti Kan there... if any. Nice soldering work though
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post #6 of 19
1/18/10 at 5:32pm
Regardless of the quality of the Lampizator itself, this Lukasz Fikus guy doesn't seem to have much class:
"If you do not like the sound - please blame yourself for being so naive." (from the Lampizator instructions .doc)

In my limited experience in this world, those who truly know what they're doing and are good at it are humble people (Ti Kan, Millet, Tangent, etc) who let their efforts speak for themselves. This applies to all fields and aspects of life, not just hi-fi.
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post #7 of 19
1/18/10 at 5:52pm
not sure why people are slating the guy, he has done nothing wrong and a lot of people like the sounds of his mods.

this is a thread about a circuit, not a personality.
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post #8 of 19
1/18/10 at 6:17pm
And he's not that wrong about hi-end makers selling unmodified or very slightly modified commercial equipment at ridiculously higher prices (as Golgmund and Lexicon have proved)...
I personally like his speakers projects (I am a fan of open baffles and dipoles), and although he does sometimes exaggerate, there is lots of interesting stuff in his site - like the shigaraki clone.
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post #9 of 19
1/18/10 at 9:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pars View Post
Not much Ti Kan there... if any. Nice soldering work though
Merely that he seems to be rather adept in DIY.

Thanks for all your replies, seems very logic

Quote:
just not impressed, sorry.
I asked for opinions and you delivered, cheers.
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post #10 of 19
1/18/10 at 10:31pm
I put his circuit in an old Marantz CD40. The unit stock was practically unlistenable - I mean muddy, non-detailed, completely boring. Bypassing the crap opamps with tubes provided sonic wonders. I'm not saying the lamped CD player was "the end" but it is highly enjoyable. Highly recommended if you have a CD that you do not mind tinkering with. Cheap to implement too - no brainer.
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post #11 of 19
1/19/10 at 10:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Juaquin View Post
Regardless of the quality of the Lampizator itself, this Lukasz Fikus guy doesn't seem to have much class:
"If you do not like the sound - please blame yourself for being so naive." (from the Lampizator instructions .doc)

In my limited experience in this world, those who truly know what they're doing and are good at it are humble people (Ti Kan, Millet, Tangent, etc) who let their efforts speak for themselves. This applies to all fields and aspects of life, not just hi-fi.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adamus View Post
not sure why people are slating the guy, he has done nothing wrong and a lot of people like the sounds of his mods.

this is a thread about a circuit, not a personality.
perhaps because he says things like the above; tends to get peoples backs up that kind of crap. the willy wonka style mods have to add more problems than they fix if you ask me, with all this modern technology also came the invention of the flush cutter and in fact he even mentions that in one of his pages (to cover himself I guess) and then goes on to say that they are the best sounding devices in all mankind

the way he slammed the TP guys was pretty uncool as well. as has been said there are other circuits I would choose if I were wanting to put a tube output stage on a dac. either that or just use a nice passive I/V circuit with high grade parts and feed a tube amp with it. adding all that current in the same box as sensitive chips with the (comparatively) high power wires criss cross-crossing the place seems a bit disingenuous

the guy does have some interesting things to say as well, its not all bad at all; in fact the buffer for the transport output to get a nice square wave that is unaffected by cable capacitance and loading is pretty cool, but I would tend to do it with SS rather than a tube (personal choice) but I tell yo this obsession with the TDA chips is really getting old if you ask me, there are many chips that I consider to be a far better choice IMO.

plus, why have a spinning disc AT ALL
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post #12 of 19
7/6/10 at 5:43am

Actually he does have some articles where he posts test results before and after his mods. This link has a photo of an oscilloscope trace of the SPDIF signal, search for "SPDIF trace in stock form" within the article. Later down it has a photo of the trace after his mods, which looks like a night and day difference. A second set of trace photos for a different player follows.

 http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/FIKUS/Fikustransport.html

I haven't done any of his mods but this at least shows two cases of clear improvement that are verifiable by test equipment.

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post #13 of 19
7/6/10 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesdb View Post

Actually he does have some articles where he posts test results before and after his mods. This link has a photo of an oscilloscope trace of the SPDIF signal, search for "SPDIF trace in stock form" within the article. Later down it has a photo of the trace after his mods, which looks like a night and day difference. A second set of trace photos for a different player follows.

 http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/TRANSPORT/FIKUS/Fikustransport.html

I haven't done any of his mods but this at least shows two cases of clear improvement that are verifiable by test equipment.



SPDIF is one thing. All of his silly work in the analogue domain, however, is an entirely different matter.

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post #14 of 19
7/7/10 at 9:23am

I've read some more articles and FWIW there is one page on measurements here

http://www.lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/Measurements/lampizator%20measurements.html

I would be interested in trying a tube output stage for one of the DAC PCB kits on ebay, like the AD1865N-K, and see he has a SRPP for it using a 6N2P tube.

I have some 5751s I may try to come up with an SRPP for unless someone else has some circuit for it..


Edited by jamesdb - 7/7/10 at 9:29am
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post #15 of 19
2/1/11 at 5:07am

Bump this thread up to see if anyone has implemented his magical lampization. 

I'm now looking for a tube output stage for my buffalo 24 dac, and his words are too wonderful to be true. If it wasnt for the fact that this lampization thing is so cheap compared to other options, I would have paid it little to none attention. But since no one tried it before, I'm just wondering if it's worth it or not, based on the schematic and the idea alone. 

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