Brutus Awards for 2019 - Positive Feedback

Ye Olde Editor at the wheel of my BMW M3 hardtop convertible, 2014 (photograph by John Robinson)

LampizatOr Pacific DAC upon arrival (DHT SET Triode, unbalanced version without volume control, for Windows 10)

If you've been following my writing over time, you may be familiar with the fact that LampizatOr has been showing up in my scrivenings on a pretty regular basis. Back in 2015 I gave the original LampizatOr Golden Gate DHT SET Tubed DAC a Brutus Award for its excellence. While being warmish and truly…well…golden, the GG had a seductive feel to it, being something like a Rubenesque nude. Rich, opulent, and with large curvaceousness; romance writ large. You'll find that announcement HERE.

Two years later, I was quite taken by the improvements that the second version of the Golden Gate, the Golden Gate 2 (also DHT SET unbalanced), brought over the first version. No longer warmly romantic, the GG2 brought a greater neutrality and improved precision to the reproduction of the audio files (mainly DSD, but some PCM, too). Note that I used the same tubes that I had been using in the original GG, and so the perceived changes I heard had nothing to do with a different set of glass. I was very impressed, and gave the GG2 one of my Brutus Awards at the end of 2017. In fact, I did a follow-up reflection on the GG2 in Issue 97, Spring of 2018, which you can read HERE. It really did affect me…such a clear, clean sound, destroying all stereotypes about tube-based DACs in general, and SETs in particular.

The LampizatOr Pacific DAC, balanced configuration (image courtesy of LampizatOr)

But at the beginning of 2019, Lukasz Fikus and Fred Ainsley sent along a review sample of their new ne plus ultra, the Pacific DAC (DHT SET unbalanced once again, and using the same tubes as in the previous two generations of the GG). I had seen the Pacific prototype at Munich in 2018, where I had done a portrait of Lukasz Fikus with it.

Lukasz Fikus with his Pacific DAC, a portrait. Munich, Germany, 2018

There were some significant changes in the Pacific DAC, including upgraded firmware and drivers from Amanero. Driver updates are no problem, but unfortunately my review unit was shipped with the wrong firmware configuration. This meant that I would have to do a lid-off firmware update here in River City. Good thing that I've done this sort of thing before…no sweat.

In the midst of correcting the firmware of the Pacific DAC (unbalanced configuration)

Following the instructions from Lampi Tech Support to the letter, with some on-phone coaching from Fred Ainsley, allowed me to get this procedure right on the first go.

Once done and buttoned up, the Pacific DAC did what it was supposed to do without problems: DSD up to DSD512 (8x DSD), and various flavors of PCM.

LampizatOr Pacific DAC, rear view. Note the Ethernet LAN input with Roon Bridge on the upper right, and the tube complement selector knob on the upper left.

And though it might be hard to believe, the Pacific DAC outpointed even the GG2…and this with the same tube complement. (I said this last July in Issue 104 in my "Brief First Impressions" notes, which you can read HERE.) But there's better news: the Pacific allows for the use of multiple tube configurations, selectable with a knob on the rear of the unit. You can choose among the following: 300Bs, 101Ds, PX4s, 242s, or 45s (which is what I use). Nice!

The improved neutrality of the GG2 was now passed by the utter crystal clarity of the Pacific. Transparency, and its related audio virtue, extraordinary detail, were inescapably present in the Pacific DAC. Dynamics were also notably improved. Musicality and transparency, in one drop-dead gorgeous, stunning package. Glorious! Absolutely glowing-glass top o' the heap!

All this, and the Pacific DAC has a Roon Bridge built in to its Ethernet section, as well.

If high end audio had a crown jewel of glass in 2019, the LampizatOr Pacific DAC certainly looks and sounds like it.

Definitely a Brutus Award winner here in 2019!

The DS Audio DS Master 1 Cartridge/EQ-Phono Amp; Durand Tonearms Tosca Tonearm; & Wave Kinetics NVS Direct-Drive Turntable

The Wave Kinetics NVS Turntable with Durand Tosca Tonearm and DS Audio DS Master 1 optical cartridge

In the world of top-notch turntables and tonearms, the Wave Kinetics NVS computer-controlled direct-drive turntable paired with any tonearm from Joel Durand is a world-class one-two punch. The NVS is extraordinary: beautiful, reasonably compact…if heavy…and transparently linear to the nth degree. Over the years I've had extensive listening to the NVS with the Durand Telos 12" wood tonearm, in that case with the Ortofon Anna MC, my deep impressions of which I wrote up back in Issue 87, September/October of 2016. You can read my musings HERE.

After that, I got a chance to hear the Durand Kairos 10.5" Tonearm mounted on an exceptionally cool vintage professional direct-drive turntable, the EMT 948. The results, especially with the van den Hul Colibri Stradivarius Signature MC, were startlingly good. Stellar, in fact…thus my Brutus Award for this combination back in Issue 95, November/December, 2017. Check it out HERE.

But now Joel Durand has come up with a new 10.5" tonearm, the Tosca. Unlike earlier designs, this new model is a gimbal design. Paired with the NVS turntable on the one hand…

The DS Audio DS Master 1 EQ/Phono Amplifier (image courtesy of DS Audio)

…and the DS Audio DS Master 1, courtesy of Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings, I'll admit it: I was stunned. I knew the virtues of the NVS and Durand tonearms, but the DS Master 1 took the combination to groovic heights of silence, transparency, and detail that I've never heard before.

Not that DS Audio was new to me. At AXPONA 2017, I spent quite a lot of time in the Musical Surroundings room with Garth Leerer, where I got to get my mind blown by the DS Master 1 system.

Garth Leerer with the DS Audio DS Master 1 in action at AXPONA 2017

I was gob smacked by how glorious the music from LP was with the DS Master 1 system. Naturally, the setting being a major audio show, I couldn't be exactly sure of how good the DS Master 1 was. That would require a review sample at home.

The DS Audio DS Master 1 at AXPONA 2017

But Garth wasn't the only voice singing the praises of DS Audio. My good audio friend Nelson Pass was also a fan. I heard a DS Audio optical cartridge in his listening room while visiting him in early 2018. While it was not the DS Master 1, I was struck by its crystalline transparency and vanishingly low noise floor. My thanks for Nelson for making me aware of the audio virtues of DS Audio cartridges.

Nelson Pass: a portrait. Sea Ranch, CA, 2018

Given my intense interest in DS Audio, I'm pleased to say that we were able to obtain a review sample of the DS Master 1 in early 2019, courtesy of Garth Leerer and Musical Surroundings. Various interruptions meant that we didn't actually get the system put into place until later in the year, but things do happen when they happen.

The DS Audio DS Master 1, rear view. Unbalanced input; balanced and unbalanced output x 3 (image courtesy of DS Audio)

The input is not for standard MC/MM cartridges; this is a dedicated unit for the DS Master 1. Uniquely, the three outputs are not for three different output devices (how would that work, anyway?), but rather represent three different output EQ settings. As outlined in the DS Audio manual, these include:

OUTPUT 1 (Single cut-off)
OUTPUT 2 (Double cut-off) Cut-off frequency: below 30Hz by 6dB/octave
Cut-off frequency 1: below 50Hz by 6dB/octave
Cut-off frequency2: below 30Hz by 6dB/octave
OUTPUT 3 (Triple cut-off)
Cut-off frequency 1: below 50Hz by 6dB/octave
Cut-off frequency 2: below 30Hz by 6dB/octave
Cut-off frequency3: below 25Hz by 12dB/octave