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Below it. There is a big price difference but also quite a big hike in SQ between the two. One is very good, the other outstanding beating far more expensive efforts. Googling will show there are people who have had DACs costing multiple tens of K who prefer the level 7.
Make of that what you will. Lots of good DACs around for far less money.
From WBF:
Blue58 Blue58 is offline
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With great sadness I had to return the Golden Gate Dac to Mark Coles of Sablon Audio and wanted to thank him for the extended loan of the unit.
Why sadness? Because I had no idea how large a leap forward in musical communication the GG could bring, with a little attention to the details.
My initial reservations about its PCM qualities compared to the Audio Aero LaFontaine have been blown out of the water with the addition of the best power cord I have ever heard. The new Sablon Audio Reserva. Without a doubt this cord improved my LaFontaine but did much more for the Golden Gate bringing out all the detail and ambience but more importantly the LIFE of the performance. The gap between AA and GG was now substantial. How can I now go back to the AA and be happy?
Surprisingly, the DSD performance, already at an incredible level prior to the power cord introduction, gained further presence, and ambient detail but the PCM was now much closer to it than ever before. Why PCM is improved to a greater degree than DSD I don't know. I'm sure Mr. 'Sablon' knows.
This Golden Gate had EML solid plate 45s and EML 5u4G as standard. I tried a GZ34 but this reduced the soundstage, dynamics and detail making for a boring sound. The solid plates I know are dynamic champions with plenty of detail but would have liked to hear the mesh plates with a 274b driver. I believe this would have been the ultimate combination in the context of my system. I'm guessing a 101d would be too detailed in my system. The Duo Omega are revealing speakers.
So, the combination of GG, Sablon Reserva power cord and Sablon Panatela USB are as we say in the UK, the dogs b....ks. One heavenly combination.
I now need to fundamentally re-evaluate my system after hearing what the GG can do with both PCM and DSD after paying attention to power cord and tube rolling.
This is the biggest leap forward in sonic performance I've ever witnessed in my 40 yrs of listening. Congratulations to Lukasz and to Mark for phenomenal products.
Ps. Musical selections ranged across, singer songwriter, jazz, classical, rock and electronic/dance. Everything was handled superbly from my Auralic Aries with HD.
Ppss. Bonzo, you have to hear your B7 with the Reserva.
Was there any writing about Big 6 on this forum? My search engine doesn't give any results....
Try the Audiogon forum, digital section.
Also Audiocircle.com forum.
Golden Gate is booked in for a visit here soon. Pics and impressions to follow.
Lampizator Golden Gate in the kitchen...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MBIGtirhqA
Pre-listen warm up...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn3-1XoQSUU
Made it...:D
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/D8...=w1065-h599-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uz...=w1065-h599-no
Psvane 101D output tubes - the WE copies. These seem to be very good indeed.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8L...=w1065-h599-no
More info here.
If you followed the link, you'll know the Golden Gate is a premium part version of the Big 7. It is also a lot more expensive at £14K. That is a lot of money for a DAC.
We spent about 3 hours listening to it and also my Big 7, for sanity check purposes.
In my opinion, it is obviously a top notch DAC. However, to my ears the gap in performance between a Big 7 and the GG is not that marked. Whilst I think there is a big leap between the level 4 I used to own, and the Big 7, the difference between the Big 7 and the GG is much smaller.
For the last nth in performance if you are considering the GG you may feel it is worth it, but I think you'll need to have deep pockets to want to spend the extra. I'd strongly recommend running a Big 7 against a GG before dropping the cash or making a decision. Those who decide in favour of the GG must be truly fanatical - in all honestly think the Big 7 is not that far behind it.
The session was more academic for me as I won't be going for one at that price, and the owner wanted to hear the new Apogees I have. Both of us enjoyed the session quite a bit I think.
It should be noted that the GG in question has only been used for less than a month, whilst my Big 7 has been in use for far longer. It may just be that with further use the GG's true colours come to the fore. I simply don't know. But if you want the best Lampizator has to offer the GG is it - either this or the balanced version.
Hi Gordon, go for the seven. The previous dacs are good valve dacs, but while they sound great on midrange like valves, sota dacs will beat them on complex music and details. However 7 onwards is a separate design. It's a direct heated triode (DHT) design.Quote:
Originally Posted by anubisgrau
There are two converts from playback design MPD-5, one provided me feedback there was no competition. Three who.believe Berkeley reference (BADA) was God's gift to digital, have all converted. I have compared it esoteric k01 in two different systems, and both owners preferred the Lampi 7. It was much better. There is a guy who owns both this and the 35k msb stack, and prefers this. Check the below quote comparing to 100k msb.
This guy also owns the Trinity, which is 40kish. I compared the two at his place, and Lampi was much better. When I say much, I am not referring to valve warmth vs SS analyticalness. Lampi is better on slam, speed, bass, and details.
Best is, apart from being great out of the box, it is a tweakophile's wet dream. You can plug in valves at the top to change the sound. You can only do this on variants of the 7. Most of us use Chinese replicas of the original western electric 101ds. Imagine what would happen if people got the original, which are expensive, at 2k USD for the pair.
6 is good for rock and electronic, but of for complex symphonies, details and soundstage, 7 is unbeatable.
The thing is it keeps beating these uber priced dacs because of the DHT design. So it doesn't matter if the dac is 2k or a 100k. Imo it is like comparing a good TT with digital, because TT will always be different..similarly Lampi will always be different, except, unlike TT, mode of operation will be like a dac. If Lampi can be beaten, it will require a high end TT with good vinyl.