[ALRAINBOW]

I have been fortunate to get to know some really cool people in this audio industry.
Both manufactures as well as people I have come to call friends.

Luk is the maker of the lamoizator dacs. And over the course of about 2 years or so I have been listening to many of his products . Various levels of his dacs and now for the first time his rendition of a dac amp combo.
He calls this a head dac. A name I thought was odd but I have grown to love the name .
The attached pictures below show my two present dacs in comparison.
The the right is my own B7 dac. To the immediate left is the new head dac.
So what is a head dac.
Wel it's the best of both worlds. It's a world class B7 dac directly coupled to a world class headphone amp.
It also works as two separate components , meaning an amp or dac seperetly while still having a volume control .
It has an assortment of inputs . Optical , coax spidif , usb. And lastly analog.
Its outputs are both rca SE. and in the front it has all,that is needed for headphones . Both balanced or SE .
Now just getting to have a great dac and or amp is hard to find. Many try and some get good reviews but what I am about to reveal about this combo is just way above anything I have heard of or know of being made period.
So why so special aside form the sound and thus will be detailed in a later post there is this.
You can roll tubes of just about any type or form.
Forest up is the rec tubes a simple 274B and all the ret that go with this type.
The driver is a 6sn7 or 6sl7. Both gt and xgt.
Lastly is the outputs tubes well let's just say I have invested about 8K in tubes from vintage to new . The amp is just crazy cool. I have tried from 101D , 6A3 , 2A3, 45 , 300B. Each kind I have many brands and configurations. I will post a list at some point it's long.
All,tubs work fantastic but it's all about mood or desire. Where you want to sit or type of magic reproduction you want to . This may seem overwhelming. It's not. Imagine listening to your same loved music over and over and it's new every time. To hear old well known tunes Ina totally new style or even hearing things you never new were there . I have compared this amp section of the new head Dac to about 8 tube and SS AMPS inown or had on hand. It beat evey one of them. Some are pictured in the pics.
Another point to be made is the dac section plays pcm up to 24/192 and DSd up to 128. And soon up to DSd 256 . Remember this is a sample model and not a production version.

How it sounds to follow. Soon sorry. It's really good and my grammer is really bad so I do need some time to put some great wording together for it.

Al










I know it looks messy sorry and my pics could be better they will,be soon.

Al

 

[ZERUNG]

No pressure Al!!
Please do try and write and elaborate. When you have the time (Hopefully you wouldn't say the B7 is now superseded by the B7 BD?). That would indeed be painful for me.....

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I promise to do so.
I can say to relax its essentially the same DAC inside.
But we now roll tubes as in ESC as well as drivers and output tubes
It's iunds very much like our B7,s. And mine does not have the SW for rolling to 2A3 amd 300 B. Something that I have grown to adore.
Also if you have them try the 6A3. It's fanataic with the B7. Buy nos
Sylvania or RCA As start anyb6A3. But get testing strong as the week work but at less output volume.
Is your B7 one or two Rec tubes like mine
Al

 

[ZERUNG]

Thanks for your reply Al.
Will wait for your views, I am solidly curious.
On the Big7, mine is the one with the single rectifier diode tube. Which I personally prefer, I remember some people have the view that the using the dual diode mode is more electrically correct than using two of the same tube. it sure is economical, if you intend to buy only one WE274B (Which I have not done as yet). On the tube rolling I prefer the KR300B more than the 6A3 (I have the Tungsol one), I will try the Sylvania soon.
I also note that you have the iFi ICan. I am using this with the Ifi USB and Ifi Ipurifier (All with LPS) and fed via the Mac/NAS > LB7. I find this so compelling that I find it hard to believe that the LHD would be better. But would not be surprised.
 
Thank you again on keep the Lamp burning......

 

[wisnon]

Not the iCan….he has the iDSD Micro.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I have both. To be honest.
I also have a caps
Win server 2012 and AO.
ALL batteries.
Two bakoons and one black lighting
It's a MSI makn board with 3.5 Xion and upgraded main board clock
Paul pang PCI usb ver 2
Amd his memory and two SOLID STATE HARDdrives one for os
And one for music.
Al

 

[bmoura]

So what is a head dac.
Well it's the best of both worlds. It's a world class B7 dac directly coupled to a world class headphone amp.

All tubes work fantastic but it's all about mood or desire. Where you want to sit or type of magic reproduction you want to . This may seem overwhelming. It's not. Imagine listening to your same loved music over and over and it's new every time. To hear old well known tunes Ina totally new style or even hearing things you never new were there . I have compared this amp section of the new Head Dac to about 8 tube and SS AMPS I own or had on hand. It beat every one of them. Some are pictured in the pics.

Another point to be made is the dac section plays PCM up to 24/192 and DSD up to 128. And soon up to DSD 256 . Remember this is a sample model and not a production version.

How it sounds to follow.

 
Al, I'll be watching for your next chapter.  DSD-256, the Big 7 DAC and a headphone amp.  Looks like quite a combination!

 

[ALRAINBOW]

It will happen in a couple of weeks. I wish I could write better the product deserves great editorial skills and I write like slug. But I do hear well. Lmao. My dac and the head dac are back in Poland for changes. I even sent luk my own SEnn hdvd800 Amp and hd800 headphones.
I also sent him my hifiman he6 headphones. Now he can hear what I do as he fiddles with some ideas I have. So far it's just fantastic. Now listning to my music at home stinks in comparison. Unless I fire up,the msb. And it's packed up for now.
On tube rolling the vt99 by tungsol is a fantastic driver tube. I am using them in my woo wa5 and my woo Wes. And now in the headac. Great tube .

 

[bmoura]

It will happen in a couple of weeks. I wish I could write better the product deserves great editorial skills and I write like slug. But I do hear well. Lmao. My dac and the head dac are back in Poland for changes. I even sent luk my own SEnn hdvd800 Amp and hd800 headphones.
I also sent him my hifiman he6 headphones. Now he can hear what I do as he fiddles with some ideas I have. So far it's just fantastic. Now listning to my music at home stinks in comparison. Unless I fire up the msb. And it's packed up for now.
On tube rolling the vt99 by tungsol is a fantastic driver tube. I am using them in my woo wa5 and my woo Wes. And now in the headac. Great tube .

The HE-6 will certainly challenge any headphone amp.  It's very power hungry! 

 

[xaval]

ALs posts always make me feel like I'm window shopping 

If there's any suff that you don't need on that room this Xmas spirit is filling me up and I'm wide open to gifts 

 
Looking forward to some more Lampi impressions.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Ok. U guys are funny.
Yes the he 6 is beyond a normal amount of power.
It was not enough due to output to output transformers or at least it's waht I think it is.
I sent them to him so he could hear as I do. I told him to use his speaker Amps as a testing. My he output transformers he is using are expensive but power limiting.
But the transparency is amazing so. I do not want to Loose that for one pair of headphones.
But he has all he needs to fine toon now. So far a device I want for sure. Tube rolling has bitten me deep
I cannot wait for my new office rig to be done to hear it on there as well.
But as headphones for me reveal more than speakers in some ways. And between the stax 009 and hd800 headphones there is no where to hide if not perfect.
The only caviate for speakers is a better image and stage
This is where only speakers give the whole sound ins recording.
And my infinity irsV give this to me
Al

 

[bmoura]

Ok. U guys are funny.
Yes the he 6 is beyond a normal amount of power.
It was not enough due to output to output transformers or at least it's waht I think it is.
I sent them to him so he could hear as I do. I told him to use his speaker Amps as a testing. My he output transformers he is using are expensive but power limiting.
But the transparency is amazing so. I do not want to Loose that for one pair of headphones.
But he has all he needs to fine toon now. So far a device I want for sure. Tube rolling has bitten me deep
I cannot wait for my new office rig to be done to hear it on there as well.
But as headphones for me reveal more than speakers in some ways. And between the stax 009 and hd800 headphones there is no where to hide if not perfect.
The only caviate for speakers is a better image and stage
This is where only speakers give the whole sound ins recording.
And my infinity irsV give this to me
Al

 
Lukasz might also want to test the new HiFi Man HE-560 headphones.  They sound really good and aren't as difficult to drive as the HE-6.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

The headac is coming back this week coming. So some posting is coming.
Al

 

[ZERUNG]

Excellent....


BTW Al, did I read somewhere that you found the WE101D to be too dynamic...perhaps did not like it? I do understand that and I love the 101d for the same reason. When I have the WE274B, life will be great.

Yes, I have the TR Bug at full drive....

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Not too dynamic but too detailed to the pint of missing the low end
Perhaps a bit thin
But there is many things to consider first is choice mening mine.
Next would be the system and it headphone used.
But clearly they were the most analytical and detailed of the bunch. Also to consider the lampi build as the one I had was two rec tubes
And now after some mods it's now a 1 rec tube dac.
Also rec tubes matter plenty but not as much with the two tube rec setup.
My current fave is the Elrogs 300B. They seem to have it all so far.
My head dac should arrive next week. Let's see what it does
It's going to play dsd 256 with the new digital board installed.