[BrandonB]

Hello I am looking at the Baltic 4 DAC. Does anyone have a picture of the inside or a list of what kind of parts are inside.  What kind of DAC chip it has etc.  Also how good is the volume control on the Baltic 4. 

[WGH]

I was researching the Baltic 4 the other day and didn't come up with much. LampizatOr's might have undocumented running updates

Baltic 4 VS Baltic 3 - What's new ?
Visually - from the outside, the biggest change is in the volume control / preamp variant. It  has a new resistor ladder, resistor-switching microprocessor, software and display from the Pacific DAC.
The resistor ladder is probably for the volume control and not like the PCM and DSD resistors ladders used the NOS HoloAudio DACs.
https://www.lampizatorpoland.com/kopia-big-7-dac-1


A post about the Amber 4 upgrade might mean something or nothing at all:
"the board is not USB programmable but instead it has FPGA coding, it uses a chip by a well known chip manufacturer but the implementation is all Lampi..."
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/lampizator-baltic-3.32079/page-18


I use HQPlayer upsampling software, the Signalyst website has recommended DACs, Lampizator is not on the list. Not much info in the Audiophile Style HQPlayer forum either.
https://signalyst.com/consumer/


I was hoping GoldenSound reviewed a Baltic 4 but no such luck. His DAC reviews get into the weeds.
https://goldensound.audio/

[BrandonB]

I was researching the Baltic 4 the other day and didn't come up with much. LampizatOr's might have undocumented running updates

Baltic 4 VS Baltic 3 - What's new ?
Visually - from the outside, the biggest change is in the volume control / preamp variant. It  has a new resistor ladder, resistor-switching microprocessor, software and display from the Pacific DAC.
The resistor ladder is probably for the volume control and not like the PCM and DSD resistors ladders used the NOS HoloAudio DACs.
https://www.lampizatorpoland.com/kopia-big-7-dac-1


A post about the Amber 4 upgrade might mean something or nothing at all:
"the board is not USB programmable but instead it has FPGA coding, it uses a chip by a well known chip manufacturer but the implementation is all Lampi..."
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/lampizator-baltic-3.32079/page-18


I use HQPlayer upsampling software, the Signalyst website has recommended DACs, Lampizator is not on the list. Not much info in the Audiophile Style HQPlayer forum either.
https://signalyst.com/consumer/


I was hoping GoldenSound reviewed a Baltic 4 but no such luck. His DAC reviews get into the weeds.
https://goldensound.audio/

I haven't been able to find much either.  I was wanting to compare the Lampizator to some of the ANK kits.  It has a TOSLINK which the ANK doesn't and volume control but the ANK has a  R2R chip.

[WGH]

Finally got the right combination of search words. Looks like I guessed wrong, there is a resistor ladder in the DAC.

Lukasz Fikus, Lapizator's developer/owner wrote on 11/30/2021
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/lampizator-announcement-launch-of-our-all-new-totl-horizon-dac.33950/page-5#post-760819

"Hi, there is no such thing as chipless solutions. The resistor ladder solution uses a MONSTROUS chip to run the resistor ladder process, there is no free lunch. We use very modern chips that noone else has right now, and they are programmable, so we write firmware which controls the block diagram of the chip, filtering, sampling rates, dsd, conversion current, and all that. So you cant compare that with any other dac."


A post on Audiokarma said:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/lampizator-high-end-dacs.1039479/

"So, there's no dedicated integrated DAC chip, in that monster.
The likes of an AKM, ESS, Texas Instruments IC etc.

"Technically, that doesn't mean there are no other ICs in that design.
There is certainly a big-ass FPGA in there, acting as a sort of controller for the ladder.

"To get a better idea of how an FPGA ladder DAC looks, it's similar to this Soekris DAC PCB"

This is NOT the Baltic 4, but perhaps similar



Lukasz is a fan of converting PCM to DSD, similar to the PS Audio DirectStream that "converts every one of its galvanically isolated input signals, both PCM and DSD, to a high sample rate 50 bit version which is further converted to pure DSD for its final conversion to pure analog."

6Moons has a older 2015 review of the Golden Gate DAC, the article also has an interview with Lukasz
http://6moons.com/audioreviews2/lampizator/1.html

This might be difficult yet I'm sure many people would like to know the best sound you've heard and where it happened.
"I remember a few cases where I felt totally immersed to swim in the music. One was with our Polish ESA speaker manufacturer’s demo room, with their top ATC driver open baffle speakers with Tact Millennium amps and Micromega Duo transport. Another was with an Audiomeca Mephisto transport, Audio Note DAC5 and Verdier 845 mono amps driving DIY Altec Lansing speakers. The third one was with my Golden Gate DAC driving 211 mono amps and Destination Audio Polish hornspeakers. Another was with my Big 7 with some big push-pull KT150 monos driving the biggest Apogee speakers. Another had a top mbl system. Last but not least were Kondo monos driving Tidal La Assoluta speakers with my Golden Gate DSD and our own DSD-Komputer source."

"Only a machine like this can flawlessly convert any high-resolution PCM file to DSD 128 on the fly, in real time and without hiccups. So the addition of our Komputer makes your Redbook collection playable as DSD and sounds significantly better in the context of our DACs."


If you plan to listen to older Redbook recordings then either DAC will work. I you want to listen to new hi-res, SACD rips or pure DSD downloads then the Audio Note ANK 5.1 does not play any of these formats, 24 bit/96 kHz is the limit.

[Jarbs]

Hi Guys,

Looks like you are digging up some outdated information from Lampizator’s past. I believe all current Lampi Dacs are using delta-sigma chips which Lukasz does his magic on.

FWIW I own a Baltic 4 with volume control as well as their top of the line Horizon. I started with a Golden Gate with R2R converter years ago. To my ears the change to delta-sigma, the way they do it, has been a major improvement all along the upgrade path.

The Baltic 4, or B4 for short, does an awful lot for the price. No, it doesn’t directly compete with the Horizon, but when fed a good signal, it’s near the same zip code. Since I have both an Aurender N100h (old) and a Taiko Extreme server (new), I’ll put it this way - I’d rather listen to the Extreme with Baltic 4 than the Aurender with the Horizon.

So, with a good source, good cable, good tubes, good power cord, the B4 is good enough for most, IMO.

[BrandonB]

Finally got the right combination of search words. Looks like I guessed wrong, there is a resistor ladder in the DAC.

Lukasz Fikus, Lapizator's developer/owner wrote on 11/30/2021
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/lampizator-announcement-launch-of-our-all-new-totl-horizon-dac.33950/page-5#post-760819

"Hi, there is no such thing as chipless solutions. The resistor ladder solution uses a MONSTROUS chip to run the resistor ladder process, there is no free lunch. We use very modern chips that noone else has right now, and they are programmable, so we write firmware which controls the block diagram of the chip, filtering, sampling rates, dsd, conversion current, and all that. So you cant compare that with any other dac."


A post on Audiokarma said:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/lampizator-high-end-dacs.1039479/

"So, there's no dedicated integrated DAC chip, in that monster.
The likes of an AKM, ESS, Texas Instruments IC etc.

"Technically, that doesn't mean there are no other ICs in that design.
There is certainly a big-ass FPGA in there, acting as a sort of controller for the ladder.

"To get a better idea of how an FPGA ladder DAC looks, it's similar to this Soekris DAC PCB"

This is NOT the Baltic 4, but perhaps similar



Lukasz is a fan of converting PCM to DSD, similar to the PS Audio DirectStream that "converts every one of its galvanically isolated input signals, both PCM and DSD, to a high sample rate 50 bit version which is further converted to pure DSD for its final conversion to pure analog."

6Moons has a older 2015 review of the Golden Gate DAC, the article also has an interview with Lukasz
http://6moons.com/audioreviews2/lampizator/1.html

This might be difficult yet I'm sure many people would like to know the best sound you've heard and where it happened.
"I remember a few cases where I felt totally immersed to swim in the music. One was with our Polish ESA speaker manufacturer’s demo room, with their top ATC driver open baffle speakers with Tact Millennium amps and Micromega Duo transport. Another was with an Audiomeca Mephisto transport, Audio Note DAC5 and Verdier 845 mono amps driving DIY Altec Lansing speakers. The third one was with my Golden Gate DAC driving 211 mono amps and Destination Audio Polish hornspeakers. Another was with my Big 7 with some big push-pull KT150 monos driving the biggest Apogee speakers. Another had a top mbl system. Last but not least were Kondo monos driving Tidal La Assoluta speakers with my Golden Gate DSD and our own DSD-Komputer source."

"Only a machine like this can flawlessly convert any high-resolution PCM file to DSD 128 on the fly, in real time and without hiccups. So the addition of our Komputer makes your Redbook collection playable as DSD and sounds significantly better in the context of our DACs."


If you plan to listen to older Redbook recordings then either DAC will work. I you want to listen to new hi-res, SACD rips or pure DSD downloads then the Audio Note ANK 5.1 does not play any of these formats, 24 bit/96 kHz is the limit.

Thanks this is great information.

[BrandonB]

Hi Guys,

Looks like you are digging up some outdated information from Lampizator’s past. I believe all current Lampi Dacs are using delta-sigma chips which Lukasz does his magic on.

FWIW I own a Baltic 4 with volume control as well as their top of the line Horizon. I started with a Golden Gate with R2R converter years ago. To my ears the change to delta-sigma, the way they do it, has been a major improvement all along the upgrade path.

The Baltic 4, or B4 for short, does an awful lot for the price. No, it doesn’t directly compete with the Horizon, but when fed a good signal, it’s near the same zip code. Since I have both an Aurender N100h (old) and a Taiko Extreme server (new), I’ll put it this way - I’d rather listen to the Extreme with Baltic 4 than the Aurender with the Horizon.

So, with a good source, good cable, good tubes, good power cord, the B4 is good enough for most, IMO.

Are you using the volume control? If so how does it sounds?  Are you using it with SS amp or Tube amp?

[Jarbs]

I have two systems. The B4 is fed by the Aurender or Oppo 105D via a Shunyata Alpha USB or generic spdif cable. The amp is a VAC 170iq integrated (KT88 push-pull). Speakers Daedalus Poseidon v3. I actually use both volume controls. Typically the VAC is set to a level and the B4 is used for adjustment. It’s impossible to isolate the B4 VC performance like this.

I’m aware that the Horizon uses the Khozmo VC unit. Maybe the B4 does too? Just don’t know. I have no complaints with either.

I also have an EMIA silver AVC passive VC/pre on the other system. I can say this $7500 unit is better than the Khozmo on the Horizon. I set the VC here to bypass (full volume) then use the EMIA for volume adjustment. It may be subtle, but meaningfully better.

Using the EMIA with the B4 may be overkill considering the price. It’s not so easy to prove one way or the other, but I think the VC performance in the B4 is fine. Probably better than most sweeper type pots. The attenuation range and taper seem fine too.

Feeding a B4 with VC direct to amp could work well, provided the overall gain works with your speaker efficiency. It’s worked well with my SS amp and other 300b SET amp. Voicing is appropriate for either. Each has an input impedance over 50k. The B4 is basically a preamp too, being able to switch inputs remotely.

Bottom line is, I think the B4 has a high performance ceiling. Just feed it good signal, use good cables, and good tubes. The rectifier and 6sn7 tubes make a big difference. Haven’t even rolled the 12bh7 yet. So far I like an old RCA globe 80 rectifier with adapter and Mullard ECC32 in the 6sn7 position.

[kayakerf]

I use HQPlayer upsampling software, the Signalyst website has recommended DACs, Lampizator is not on the list. Not much info in the Audiophile Style HQPlayer forum either.
https://signalyst.com/consumer/

I've been using Roon/HQP with the B4 for the last 5 months. I'm finding that while HQP does improve the PCM by upsampling or remodulating to DSD on the HoloAudio DACs, it doesn't improve much with the Lampizator B4. If anything, I find it smooths out PCM a bit too much. Quite possibly I've not tuned the HQP filters well enough for input into the the B4.

[WGH]

I'm finding that while HQP does improve the PCM by upsampling or remodulating to DSD on the HoloAudio DACs, it doesn't improve much with the Lampizator B4. If anything, I find it smooths out PCM a bit too much. Quite possibly I've not tuned the HQP filters well enough for input into the the B4.

DSD does smooth out PCM. The beauty of HQPlayer is there are plenty of choices and there are no wrong answers. Note that I'm still using version 5.2.0. I noticed that version 5.7.4 was released on September 12, 2024. I should see if HQPlayer will upgrade for free, my version is a year old. Version 5.x.x has more oversampling filters than version 4.x.x. If you need to upgrade HQPlayer then Signalyst always has a Black Friday Sale on the latest version.

Right now I'm using the DSD settings that the majority of users use:
Oversampling 1x: poly-sinc-gauss-long
Oversampling Nx: poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp
Modulator: ASDM7ECv3
Bit rate: 48k x 256

The PCM Bit Depth is 20 based on Stereophile measurements of the HoloAudio May DAC and the HQPlayer thread in audiophilestyle forum. I don't know what PCM bit depth is recommended for the B4.

Today's last page in the audiophilestyle forum has a filter you can try:

"What DSD filter gives the most energy?"

"You can try poly-sinc-gauss-halfband."

"Try poly-sinc-xtr-short-l/mp"

"the shorter mp filters - polysinc short mp, xtr short mp/lp... "

Miska wrote:
" Apart from filters that were suggested already, it is worth trying different modulators.
"If you like ESS'ish sound, try with ASDM7EC-ul modulator... ASDM7EC-light naturally sits between the -ul and -super. Or the same with 5th order.
"Worth checking between these three modulator variants without changing anything else. You may notice a certain characteristic difference."


Yesterday bogi wrote:
 "Many of us still remember the analog world of music. When CD players were first time introduced, people found that the same albums sound differently, with hardened transients, many times listening was not so relaxed and enjoyable than from vinyl source. But after some years new generation didn't hear anything else than sound of cheap delta sigma implementations. The deformation coming from these cheap and low quality solutions became a standard and people started thinking "this is how it should sound". By paradox, when those people hear clean analog sound, they are often missing the distortion of delta sigma chips.

"When testing PCM to DSD conversion in HQPlayer, concentrate yourself on fine detail of transients and answer yourself, what you like more. Maybe one needs longer listening period to accomodate to a new sound to be able to judge what is better.

"My personal opinion is that the PCM to DSD conversion in HQPlayer brings cleaner, more relaxed, more enjoyable sound. PCM source listened without HQPlayer through typical delta sigma chips like wiim IMO results to added distortion creating false effect of more attack but with loss of fine transient detail. But that's only my opinion. Use your ears, not mine or goldensound's opinion. It's like with taste in the case of meal. Anything will be result of your evaluation, it's your truth. Your taste - your enjoyment."