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LampizatOr- Amber-3 Manual
DSD
Direct Stream Digital, also known as DSD format - this format is not new as many
people think, it is as old as digital but it wasn’t used for consumer audio or home audio
- before. It became very popular after 2010 and continues to make its way into our
homes. It is VERY different than our well known PCM format as found in our CD files,
MP3, FLAC or WAV - AIFF. It encodes the music in the data stream differently, looks
different and sounds different. It is the format in which the SACD discs were recorded
and a format in which the analog master tapes were backed up by record companies. It
is currently the format in which sometimes the session recordings are made in record
industry.
In Amber-3 DAC - we use AUTOSENSING and automatic switch from DSD to PCM
and back. Used doesn’t need to do anything just enjoy.
Amber -3 DAC will automatically recognise and switch all DSD speed rates from
normal 64 SACD format to 2x (128x) and quad 256x format (with special software
only ) . 512 is supported only with the use of very good and fast streamers that are very
rare but our DAC will play it.
We believe that 256 is the maximum reasonable speed and going faster makes no
sense.
Audio volume level (Hi Gain - Lo Gain)
Tube technology allows us to set practically unlimited volume level at the output, up to
100 x higher than from a normal CD player. We have decided to adhere to one
internally set standard: the test tone of 1 kHz at -20 dB produces an output of sine
wave 300 mV AC under the amp load of 47K. Thats equivalent of circa 3 V pp. @ 0dB.
Shall this be inconvenient for some reason – it is adjustable in the range of 0-1800 mV
by just one resistor change. The test tone is available from us via email in the form of
WAV or AIFF or FLAC or MP3 file.
Fot the user’s convenience we added a switch: Hi-Gain is for all systems that handle it
without major clipping distortion.
If the Hi-Gain is clipping - please use lo-gain and that is compatible with every existing
amp or preamp.
Generally - we prefer the sound of the DAC with high output levels, and most amps
don’t have any problem with that. A simple potentiometer or stepped attenuator takes
care of that. Only solid state chip based preamps will saturate and distort thats why we
need to know in advance about such solid state chip volume system being driven by
the DAC. We will keep then the volume level at the “book” level of 2 V pp.(Lo-gain
switch position) Having said that - chip volume systems and preamps with opamps
belong in home theatre (cheap one) and DEFINITELY not in high end.
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