Lampizator BIG 7

This is a listing for those who strictly want the best of the best and know about Lampizator products. If you are an experienced audiophile, know the advantages of tubes, and the difference between balanced versus single ended designs...then this DAC is about as rare as you will find. If you don't know about Lampizator or have a commensurate system, then it's probably overkill and not ideal for you.

I bought it a few years ago straight from the room at RMAF. The rare aspect of this particular DAC is that it is fully balanced. This means double the parts in many areas and greater measurable and audible performance. It's also more expensive than the single-ended counter-part.

I'm not in a rush to sell, so no low ball offers. I'm already selling it for about the same price as a single ended version which is inferior in almost every aspect.

I'm happy to help and answer questions, but here is a list of anticipated FAQs to save everyone time:

#1 Am I the only owner? Yes.

#2 Why am I selling? I'm NOT upgrading or changing DACs. I'm frankly ambivalent to selling it so I won't entertain low ball offers. I recently converted my room to a HT so two channel listening doesn't get much attention now compared to TV/movies. I also have a child and little relatives that come over. The exposed tubes and huge chassis make it difficult to put in a safe location. If I don't sell it, I'll just hang on to it until kids get older and I can go back to 2 channel listening.

There is nothing wrong with the DAC, and it still is the best I've heard period. FWIW, I've attended the last 2 RMAF, LAAS, and last 2 CES.

#3 What does it sound like? If you don't know Lampizator, the advantages of tubes, and balanced designs, then it will be quite the revelation. Most DACs...even the mega dollar ones...are clinical sounding and just create sound...not music. This is a whole new ball game in terms of providing a tube dac in a balanced configuration with a super pure circuit design.

#4 Any downsides? The tubes last a long time, but a balanced DAC requires double the tubes, so double the cost. I'm including some extra output tubes and rectifier (see pic for 3 - 101d and 1- 274b). This should be enough to last several years of daily use. The current tubes are less than a year old. (I used to leave on the DAC 24/7, but that ran down the original tubes too fast.)

Other than kids touching the exposed tubes, the only other downside is that you need an amp that is friendly to the high output impedance. You definitely want to run this DAC straight into your amp if possible. It's super transparent because of its pure circuit design. It totally negates the need for you to have a preamp and sounds phenomenal as long as you have a properly designed amp. The amp you use should have an input impedance of 47k or higher if you run the DAC direct. If not, I would say you should use a preamp, buy a better quality amp, or have Lampizator modify the DAC to add a buffer stage.

If I had to nitpick, the remote and it's weird way of switching inputs is not exactly the most user friendly, but once you hear the sound, it's negligible. In short, you're paying for the parts in the DAC not the remote. You're mostly just using the remote to change volume.
#5 Shipping? The DAC is large, but the flight case in the pic will be included and fully protects the DAC more than cardboard boxing. It's top notch quality that even more expensive DACs don't provide.

#6 Tube rolling? Yes, the Big 7 Balanced is especially easy to tube roll and try exotic combinations. 300b output tubes and exotic rectifiers add limitless flavors since the circuit is so pure and transparent. There are several Lampizator dedicated forums where users share their experiences with tube rolling and more. Because there are so few quality tube dacs, there is a cult type following with Lampizator.

#7 DSD? Yes, it will do DSD, but quite frankly I prefer bit perfect playback on non-DSD material. It doesn't have as much to do with the DAC as the server. DSD playback puts more strain on most music servers and that can impact the quality of sound, dropouts, etc. This DAC sounds phenomenal without having to use DSD and an exotic server.

See the pics for the inputs/outputs and Lampizator's detailed sheet for this DAC.