The Gearhead: Lampizator Golden Gate DAC... "To the nines"

High Fidelity, AKA Hifi… One wonders sometimes how broad indeed this term can be. Originally, high fidelity audio was a term that separated attempts at broader spectrum sound from what existed before. And what existed before was decidedly not high fidelity, as frequency extension beyond 9 Kilohertz or so was deemed unnecessary or extravagant. This was back when audio was really being explored and tube amplifiers ruled the scene — solid state devices were still many years from being invented.

These days, if your speakers aren’t linear to 25KHz and your amp to thereabouts or beyond, some might say you’re not listening in the highest fidelity. I don’t know about that claim per se, but the Lampizator tube DAC I’m listening to right now is making me understand a little better the delineation between high fidelity audio and high end audio.

Besides being extremely extended in frequency and low in distortion, this DAC’s construction takes every piece and part to the absolute extreme. Silver wire in teflon is used throughout, only silver solder used for electrical connections, and no expense is spared on the output capacitors — Jupiter copper bypassed by Duelund silver give the best of both materials’ worlds. A chassis made of pure copper houses many more parts internally where no expense was spared.

As Lampizator puts it, the Golden Gate DSD DAC is similar in design to the Big7 DAC by the same company, but with the most expensive parts available throughout, rather than the Big7’s use of the best parts with “sane” pricing.

Going all out in hifi audio might not be fully connected to the effort of reaching the highest fidelity, but I can attest that this approach yields extremely satisfying sonic results. Connected to my personal monitor setup here at The Music Room, a pair of speakers I designed and whose external crossovers house similarly exotic parts, the delicacy and immediacy of this DAC is breathtaking.

It’s a bit serendipitous that the day I installed Duelund CAST silver graphite resistors in my speakers’ crossovers (on the ever-important tweeter attenuation area) I also get the chance to experience a digital converter that follows the same no-holds-barred approach.

What am I using to power the speakers after this all-out assault on digital conversion? Oh, just a pair of Pass Labs 160.8 mono amplifiers, no big deal. It’s a twist on the more traditional approach of a typical chip or FPGA DAC with a solid state output stage feeding a tube amplifier to give the best of both worlds. In this case however, the higher damping factor of the Class A 160.8s are a great match for my speakers, and the resulting sound is incredible. The Lampizator has both volume control and an optional analog RCA input, so it serves as preamplifier in this ridiculous system as well.

While I’ll have to send these over to the photo department shortly and move back to my normal desktop setup here in the testing area, just being able to touch the highest of high fidelity for a few moments is a joyride to the extreme for an audiophile like myself.

For anyone with the means and the desire to spare no expense in a stereo system that is both high end AND high fidelity, consider the Lampizator Golden Gate DAC and Pass Labs 160.8 monoblocks — you won’t be disappointed

Shop this DAC now.