I would have a look at this before considering Lampizator DACs-
From the Acoustat Facebook group written by a guy who is the head tech on a radio telescope installation:
In my 40 years of repairing audio gear, I've experienced some amazing equipment. One company that I thought was interesting, due to my infatuation with D/A converters, was Lampizator. Tube output D/A's using exotic parts, prices ranging from 10-$60,000.00 hand made in Poland. One of my high end audio dealers who I do repairs for, brought me this Lampizator DAC. The output tubes are 45's hand made, 750.00/pr. Wow! The main problem was a broken rotary encoder, aka digital volume control. I replaced the bad part, but I have never seen such an awful build quality in my life. This mess would never be UL listed! And how it can make it shipped from Poland, and still even work, is beyond my comprehension.
I'll share some photos. Most of the internal boards are attached to what looks like scraps of wood flooring. At least it's not laminate! 😆 Tons of tiny solid core wire, with no strain relief, not even a few zip ties! Sloppy soldering, parts glued to this and that... Grade school science project comes to mind...
I blew 4 fuses in my bench system interfaces, just trying to listen to this thing! It had a "factory upgrade", of a set of "extra bass outputs" where they bypassed the output coupling capacitors. These jacks have 108vdc on them! Huh, wonder why I blew the fuses? The relay based stepped attenuator had about 1v DC on its input, so every time you change the volume setting, there's a nice loud pop thru the speakers, as the voltage changes!
I don't like to slander equipment. But this is a piece people special order, and it cost more than a house in the 80's! I'm amazed that nobody has taken the lid off of one of these things, and exposed what they really are!
Here's a few photos for your viewing pleasure?
